The Short Encounter
by mrawgirl09
Summary: OPFMA. The OP gang has one month to deal with an island called 'The Continent' with the Alchemist crew! ... If only it was that innocent...Slightly AU//Will probably rewrite.maybe. later.
1. Chapter 1

OP x FMA fanfic … … I guess this begins before the crew meets Brooke (SPOILER!!).

And Ed's 19, (SPOILER!!) he just came back from the other side of the gate, and decided to stay!! YAY!!

The manga and the anime (and of course the movie) is mixed! I just like both Ling and Russell, I can't really decide who to not use! Oh, and Ling isn't Greed, and Greed is ded. (Sorry! I had to kill SOMEONE!) Hughes is still ded, mostly because if I let him live it will be WAY too idealistic. Alfonse doesn't die, and he came back with the Elric brothers 'Cause I LOVE HIM!! … and there REALLY should be more things that proves his existence.

Let's pretend that Amestris (Originally stranded between Aerugo, Creta, Drachma, Ishval and the Great Desert which further leads to Xing) does not have the desert, and that there is actually a fast way from a port of Xing to Youswell without going into Ishval. Just cause that makes it SO MUCH easier for me. God, so many differences!!

Anyways, Here we go!!

Disclaimer: I will say this only once in this story... I do **not, NOT NNNOOOTTT** own The Full Metal Alchemist **nor** do I own the One Piece in any form.

* * *

Sunny Go was sailing by the peaceful sea, which, by far, looked like an emerald sheet spread out. On the deck were people relaxing, for times of calm did not come easily on the unpredictable conditions of the oceans of the Grand Line. A black haired boy with a straw hat was lazing on the figurehead of the ship which oddly looked like a lion with petals. Behind him on the large, grass-laid deck, were two young ladies, laid back on lounging chairs enjoying the sun. Occasionally the ship's cook would swivel over to the young ladies from his kitchen-lair and offer newly made treats.

"I'm boooooooooooooooored…."

The boy who was presently rolling about on the small space of the lion's head was Luffy D. Monkey, the newly arising star of the pirate world, a 300 million beli rookie with the dream of becoming the Pirate King.

"There's nothing to do … Zoro doesn't play … Usopp and Chopper are swimming … feh. How long is this supposed to take?! It's been 5 days since this boat ever went through a storm and almost a full week without any sea-creatures trying to eat us!! Oi Nami!! Are you SURE this is the way to … where are we going again?" Luffy exclaimed, deprived of whatever excitements from his adventure-stricken mind.

"We're supposed to be arriving at a place called Xing," replied the red-haired navigator "in about … two to three days from now, if we don't go off course. I'm pretty sure that we won't be meeting more storms; we're closing in to what's supposed to be this huge island that's big enough to be a continent. It has several countries in it… like this country called Aerugo … or Creta … I wonder what they specialize in? Robin, do you know anything about where we're supposed to go? I never really saw this i…continent before I actually looked it up."

"Yes, actually." Answered the black – haired researcher, "This is supposed to be the only continent in all seas. I read that Xing is professioned in what seems to be spiritual 'control' and has a unique kind of animal called 'Panda'… it's supposed to be a bear with two colors."

The previously uninterested "Cool!! I want to see a panda!! Maybe we could keep one? Like a green and blue one!!"

"Creata is most developed in mining," Robin continued, amused by the reaction her captain was showing. "the mines provide everything, or so the author claimed, and Aurego is supposed to excel in craftsmanship. The two countries are actually quite friendly with each other; one sells the goods while the other buys it, crafts it, and resells it to the providers instead of money. I'm guessing that there are no currencies in these countries…Drachma, well, is supposed to be like the Mr. Doctor's island, it snows every day and the people there are very violent because of that. Well, the continent is supposed to be using this other currency called cenz."

Sanji, who was retrieving the finished dessert plates added to the discussion. "Well, I hope the beli's we have would be enough for our stay. We need more ingredients. The idiots attacked the fridge when I wasn't looking. I swear you guys are developing new sneaking skills."

"The currency when the book was written was 20 cenz to 70 beli, but since it's been over about 8 years, I think it has changed. Hopefully it's turned less…expensive." Robin continued on, "… I've also read about another country in the middle of the countries. It's called Amestris, but the details to it are quite vague. It's supposed to be a country where there are people like wizards called 'alchemists', and quite developed in the prosthetics department."

"Ah! I've heard of this 'Amestris'," Exclaimed Sanji. "One of the idiot cooks was from the country. He used to take pride in his country being able to do things similar to magic. Apparently, anyone who has the brains can practice 'Alchemy'! "

"What's 'alchemy'?" asked the captain, interest suddenly bloomed about this 'magic'.

"I'm not sure myself, but it's supposed to be some sort of a study of changing materials, like grass into bread. Skilled ones could also make gold out of lead, I heard" Supplied the blonde.

"Gold?!" Exclaimed Luffy and Nami.

Luffy turned back to his sea-gazing after hearing such surprising information. Robin, Sanji, and Nami were discussing about other scrap information that didn't interest him, and he tuned them out, silently looking around in hopes of finding even a glimpse of this 'continent'. He couldn't wait to see the 'miracle' already, and he was getting giddy. When the cook called out to him to gather the rest of the crew from other parts of the ship for dinner, he had almost obliged to do as ordered and stuff himself with the already-mouth-watering dishes the cook came up with.

Almost.

Luffy was about to slide off the Sunny Go's head when he saw a brownish (red?) figure floating over on a huge piece of plank.

"Oi Sanji! There's a red thing floating towards us!! I think it's alive!" Luffy called out to his nakama.

Sanji, as he was returning to the kitchen, made a U turn and came over to look over the side of the boat. "What are you talking about, Luff-Gyah! It's not a 'thing', it's a person!! We've got to get him out of there!"

* * *

Yeah, it's kinda short- but I don't care. R and R people!! This is my first long-term story! Be gentle! u

PS.

By the way, people reviewd (OMG REVIEWED!!) to me that Chopper ate the devil's fruit and thus cannot swim. I know that, but I don't know what we call that round balloon-tube where people ride so that they don't sink-- I think I saw Chopper ride one ... or were those shoulder ... tubes? anyways... I saw Chopper with one in the manga! nyah!

mrawgirl09


	2. Chapter 2

"We've got to get him out of there!"

* * *

The person Luffy accidentally saved was, how to say… interesting. When Luffy stretched his arms to pick up the figure, it had been very heavy, almost too heavy to be of a person. In fact, this 'person' had a boy-ish face but was as tall as two Choppers on top of each other and that didn't help explain the weight. Although being a boy (his very-dark-red-that-it-looked-almost-bloody-coat was taken off only to reveal a flat chest and another black jacket, which the crew decided to leave it on, and Sanji was disappointed-WHA?! D8), he had his hair long and tied up in a braid, with a slim figure, making him somehow look like a girl.

"Who do you reckon he is?" asked Zoro, the marimo swordsman who just came back from his intense training of lifting 7 tons of weight.

"I don't know…", said Chopper, the crew's doctor, "he doesn't seems to be hurt… at least there's no blood seeping out."

"How do you know that? His clothes are black! I he might have broken a bone or something…"

"Well, his clothes are soaked, and there aren't any blood flowing… and all joints and bones are moving as they should. I think he's just dehydrated. He must have drunk a LOT of sea water."

"Now why does that boy look similar?" muttered Sanji, and all eyes went to the man.

"What do you mean?" said Luffy, "Do you know him?"

"No. Actually, I'm pretty sure we're never met."

"Eeh … I think he's wearing some sort of a gauntlet underneath his clothes." said Chopper, "It's really hard."

"Heavy, too." Added Usopp, the straw hat crew's sharpshooter.

"Ungh…"

"Hey, he's waking!" said Chopper.

* * *

Edward Elric was NOT happy.

He had just returned from the other side of the gate, and not long after he's caught up to be a military dog again, AND his first mission ever after he came back and the first ever to be done over the sea was, literally, in the bottom of the freaking sea. The fucking ship got caught up in the freaking hurricane and got torn in half with only barely enough time for Ed to somehow manage to make a crappy makeshift floating chunk of wood with the debris when the damn hurricane suddenly stopped and he fell.

"Ungh…"

"Hey! … …ng!"

It sounded somewhat like a small child, and then another, older but still annoyingly childish voice spoke up.

"Hey! Hey! Are you awake yet? Are you alright? What were you doing on a raft? Did you ship get wreaked? How long have you been here? Who are you anyways? What-

"Ugh, shuuuuuut uuuuup……" he groaned. His head hurt like hell.

As he came to, he saw a face which he thought was a raccoon with a horned hat, and that of a boy with a stitched scar under his left eye and a straw hat.

"Hey guys!!" Luffy shouted. "He's awake! And his eyes are GOLD!!"

"Wah… I've never seen a person with gold eyes… how did you get that?" said Chopper, intrigued.

"GAH! Chimera!? And a talking one, too!!" Edward yelled, almost deafening a certain doctor, and jumped back in a fighting position.

Luffy, amused by the stranger's reaction, glomped him, secretly minding that he didn't do any damage to the surroundings. "Haha! You're funny!"

"Luffy! Get off of him!!"

_Well, this is one wicked nightmare_, Ed thought. _A chimera that looks like an oversized squirrel was talking, not to mention being stranded on the most dangerous ocean on a pirate ship… this had got to be a dream._

"So… you can start by telling us your name." Said a woman with red (_red? It was more orangey than red_) hair. Most people (some of the people he knew in the military) would have started to drool over the sight the lady was giving in her very small T-shirt and hot pants, but Edward Elric was not what some would say as 'perverted kind'.

"Who wants to know?" Ed growled. Rule number one. Do not spill anything until you know something about the others, especially if you have no idea where the hell you were. Even more if the only thing about this place that you know of is that it's a pirate ship.

Apparently, that wasn't the right move, either. Ed suddenly had a shadow loom over him (not that he was short). When he looked up, he saw a bright green (WTF?!) flop of hair and two very hard eyes. Noticing the very obvious implication of those eyes, he stared intently back at them, determined not to lose.

"Look, we won't hurt you, or anything," helped Sanji, "You seem to have been in a shipwreck, even if you don't want help, you'd at least have to be here for another two or three days, and it'd be better if we knew who we are talking to."

"You don't expect me to believe that, do you?" Said Ed, "You pirates would probably try to sell me off to Drachma or Aurego or some other place."

"Ah, so you're from 'the continent'." Said the black haired woman.

"So what if I am?" challenged Ed.

"Hey, you punk! Don't you use that tone with a lady!" Said another man, this one with blond hair covering half his face. He reminded Ed of Russell; except for the funky curled eyebrow that he was sure wasn't real.

"Che." Was all he said.

"Well, we saved your ass so the least you can do is thank us, you know, ya prat." Said … someone (or maybe something-who has a three split chin?) with a very unnatural blue hair.

"Hmph. … fine." Ed was stubborn, but as he hated people when they were ungrateful, decided not to be a hypocrite. "Name's Ed, thanks, and I hope this ship is heading to Amestris, or somewhere near there."

"Name's Ed, thanks, and I hope this ship is heading to Amestris, or somewhere near there."

Nami didn't fail to notice the golden word (the beli word, in her mind), Amestris, come out of their temporary ward. "So you're from Amestris?"

"… Yeah. What about it?" 'Ed' still sounded wary. It was kind of refreshing to have a somewhat normal reaction from people after being with only weirdoes.

"Well, we are just heading to this port in Xing, my name's Nami by the way, and we were discussing of the country around it …" Tried Nami, trying to calm Ed down a little with small talk. It didn't work.

"Just get to the point." Said Ed, seeming even more irritated than before.

"Can you make gold?" Interrupted Luffy, almost bouncing up and down in excitement.

"No." was the short reply.

"But I thought there were alchemists there!!" cried Franky, and Ed seemed to relax a bit.

"Yeah well, not all of them are." The reply was somewhat smug, as if knowing a secret that he won't share.

"Edward Elric?" said Sanji suddenly.

The boy tensed up again and glared daggers at the man, successfully scaring Chopper.

"… Who are you? …"

"I am not telling you until you talk..."

"Do you know him?" Interrupted Luffy.

"Actually, yes. You know that idiot I talked about?" said Sanji to the rest of the crew. "He also mentioned something about a child prodigy ending up as 'military dog'. Named Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist."

"WAH!! You're Full Metal?!" cried Luffy, eyes turning into sparkles. "Are you a cyborg too?!"

"What?! No!!" Edward yelled. "And you!!" He pointed at Sanji. "How do you know I'm an Amestrian, let alone the Full Metal Alchemist?"

"…"Sanji stared at Ed. Ed tensed, as well as the others, preparing themselves as to what the man would say.

"… Good point." Everyone sweat-dropped, at least until the cook said "… although at some point he said something about being sensitive…"

"Sensitive? He doesn't seem like the type. He seems like a guy with big heart even if he's somewhat short." said Usopp, trying to impress the shorty with his 'heroic' movement.

No one, and by that no one, had envisioned that coming.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT EVEN THE SMALLEST OF MICROSCOPICAL LARVAE COULDN'T SEE HIM EVEN USING THE LARVAN WORLD'S TINIEST ULTRA ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPE?!" Yelled Edward, reaching toward Usopp to try to strangle him. Yes, he was still small, although he did become taller during his years across the gate. Now he was just an inch smaller than most small people.

"I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!! Please forgive me!!" pleaded Usopp, running away from the infuriated blond.

"…Well that was uncalled for." Said Sanji.

"Kishishishishishi! You're funny!! Do that again! Shorty!" said Luffy, most evidently amused by the outburst.

"I AM NOT SHORT DAMMIT YOU SONUVABITCH!! I JUST HAVE BAD STATURE!! I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU WALKING AROUND WITH CHUNKS OF M-" yelled Edward, slapping himself mentally of the word that almost came out. "-m-ph-FUCKING WET LEATHER!!"

"…so noisy…" muttered Zoro.

"Well I guess that confirms our suspicions as to who he is…"said Nami, to no one particular.

"Hmph. So what are you gonna do now, sell me off somewhere?" huffed Edward.

Nami's eyes sparkeld. "Although that is a very nice thought, I was thinking more about-"

"Hey, you wanna join our crew?" said Luffy, to everyone's (except for Ed, as he didn't know Luffy tends to do this to people he thinks are cool… or funny.) annoyance.

"… Say what?" asked Edward, more confused then ever.

"Luffy!! We told you not to go around asking strangers to be in your crew!!" yelled Nami.

"But he's funny!! And he's an alchemist!!" whined Luffy.

"… Is this crew always like this?" asked Edward to the black-haired woman.

"Yes, Mr. Alchemist," replied Robin. Edward stared at her. "What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just… weird."

"What is?"

"That… title. Just call me Ed. … or at least Edward. It's… weird." mumbled Edward, becoming more and more embarrassed by the situation. "Besides, I'm not the only State Alchemist."

Zoro's face turned to the short (hum) blonde. More information to wherever they were going would have been nice, most especially because there was almost to no info in the huge library that was in the ship.

"There are more of you?" asked Zoro.

"Well, yeah." said Edward simply. The eyes turned to him, expectantly. "What?" asked Edward, getting unnerved by the stares.

"Well, if you're going to pick at our interests, then don't stop talking, or I'll beat the shit outta you." Said Franky, starting to get annoyed by the stubborn blonde.

"What do you want to know?" asked Edward. Inwardly, he was preparing himself to answer as simply as possible, as even though his identity was discovered, the least he could do was try to keep important information out. By the looks the green-slop-hair was giving him (he now noticed that the man had 3 swords – intriguing, because last time he checked male anatomy, men generally had two arms), it seemed like he was the one to question him…mostly.

* * *

Hum. Well, This is the next chapter. I'm really sorry about whomever was reading this before, but I accidentally erased it the first time ;; R&R, please!...please?

ps. I'm not going to disclaim this again because everyonw knows that I don't own the FMA or OP, cause if I did, I won't be drooling over them, and I said in the first chapter that I WON't DISCLAIM AGAIN! (although I did)


	3. Chapter 3

_it seemed like he was the one to question him…mostly._

* * *

"Who are you?"

"I thought you knew, Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist."

"How old are you?"

"19"

"… Is there any places where Marines are the most?"

"You mean the marines who work for the World Government? None, we technically don't exist. From what I read, the logs stopped reading us since whoever called Gold D Roger was killed (AN: I know, this sucks, and no, there are no hidden stories about this)."

"So does that mean that the people there don't know that we're pirates?"

"They will if you keep on displaying that flag and the sail."

_Hey guys! Let down the sail and the flag - Do we have any other sheets to use as a sail? –_

_ Gah! No! Why are we getting down the flag?! -_

_Luffy!! Get down here!!_

"Where were you going?"

"On a mission."

"Care to specify?"

"No. Military secret."

"To where?"

"I don't know. I haven't read the report yet. And now that's down at the bottom of the ocean."

"You're in the military, right?"

"Yup."

"What rank?"

"Colonel."

"What?!" That interrupted the questioning. "Didn't you say you were 19?!" asked Sanji, very, very surprised.

"Uh-huh." Was the reply.

"How the hell-no, why the hell-… you're lying." Growled Sanji.

"What? Why is it so surprising? What?" asked Luffy, very confused about the whole situation. Franky obliged. "Normally people apply to the military after the age 18. The earliest recruits are at 17, unless they're in a war, which I don't think is right judging by his wear. They get to start by being a private, going up the ranks slowly. If he's a colonel, then he should be around 30, at least!"

"Well, I ain't lying, believe me or not. Besides, I was a major when I got in. I didn't apply for it, mind you. Besides, the youngest colonel I knew was about 28."

"When did you get in the military?"

"12."

"WHAT?! There's NO WAY any kind of military that would let in a child!!" exclaimed Nami.

"… Next question."

"So you have metal limbs." Said Zoro, taking over the questioning again as others seemed too shocked to speak.

"… And?"

"Show us."

"No."

Zoro grumbled. This kid was being very hard to read. Knowing less about the other made it harder to retaliate later when it would be needed. "What about Alchemy?"

"What about it?"

"Can you show us Alchemy?" said Chopper, his academic curiosity overpowering the fear for the short tempered Alchemist.

"Yeah." He didn't move. Usopp asked, "Aren't you going to show us?"

"No."

"But you said-"

"I said I could, I didn't say I would."

That didn't do well with Luffy. "Hey! That's no fair!-"

"Too bad."

"Grrr…I don't like you! Don't come in my crew!!" said Luffy. This was so different from the short tempered boy before. "Shorty!" he added for good measure. Ed's eye twitched, but didn't do anything else.

"The feeling's mutual, I didn't want to be in your crew anyways, and DON'T FUCKING CALL ME SHORT!!"

With that, the crew went back to doing what they were doing, leaving the alchemist alone. Although they did have many things to say to him, mostly being about his attitude, but decided against it, since they needed only to be near each other for a few days. Robin, being the most neutral one, approached Edward with a near-smile.

"The introduction was late, but my name's Robin. It's nice to meet you, Mister Alchemist."

"Why?" asked the boy, hiding his wary face under his bangs.

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you guys this… nice to a stranger? I might be dangerous, you know, and I made crap outta your questionings et cetera, et cetera… so why bother keeping me aboard?" It really didn't make sense. He had deliberately made them angry enough to just let him go by himself – as he still didn't trust these people.

"…Well, it's all up to the captain, although he doesn't seem too happy with you, I guess he still likes you." _Oh Happy Me_.

"… And the oh-so-powerful captain is…?" Asked Edward, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Luffy. Monkey D Luffy. He's the one over at the prow."

"… Huh. I thought it was that guy with the green hair and three swords." _who the hell names their child Monkey?_

The silence from then on stretched to an almost uncomfortable lapse until Ed spoke up.

"So… who are the rest?"

"Mr. Swordsman's name is Roronoa Zoro," _So that's what he's called._ "Mr. Cook's name is Sanji," _This one I don't have any idea._ "Ms. Navigator's is Nami," _The other girl, then?_ "Mr. Sharpshooter's is Usopp," _Who?_ "Mr. Doctor is Chopper," _So there's a doctor?_ "Mr. Cyborg" _CYBORG?!_ "is Franky.

"Could you mind telling me the name of that chimera, too? If you've named it, I mean." Said Edward, deciding to listen for the rest's names.

"That would be our doctor, and he is not a chimera. He's a reindeer." Said Robin-wasn't that what she had said?-with a smile.

_What? The reindeer's a doctor?_ "This ship is full to the brim with freaks…" muttered Edward. The other girl didn't seem to notice.

After a while, Ed got tired just sitting on the deck.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to retire… do you have any spare rooms I could use?"

Yeah, like they would, after that fight with the captain and all…

"Um... We don't really have a spare room…" said … Chopper, was it?

"We all sleep in the same room, and we don't have another bed… unless you'd rather sleep on the operation table in the clinic-but then it in not that comfortable…" Said the blonde man. By this time Edward was sure they were either really stupid or really open-minded.

"-But I think one of us could move out for a few nights, there is a sofa in the gym or the library-"

"You have a library?" cut in Ed, our oh-so-favorite book worm. "I mean, um… it wouldn't be kind of right for me to uhh… steal your beds, or something… I could just sleep at the library if that's alright…" Well that sounded lame, thought Edward. This seemed to show, as the other blond smirked and said, "Well, I guess we have another book-obsessed person on out ship. Suit yourself, but you'll have to sleep there for the rest of the trip."

"Fine by me. Although I hope I won't be giving up a comfy bed for a few bookshelves you call a library." Said Edward.

"I'll show you to the library, then?" Asked Chopper, delighted to show off the collections of books the crew (mostly his, Nami's and Robin's, and Sanji's cookbooks) had bought.

"Yes, thank you." Said Edward, getting up. His clothes were mostly dry, but his butt was still wet, and the leather was becoming way too tight for his comfort. He clapped his hands, and placed them on his clothes. The alchemic reaction occurred with the usual blue sparks, and soon, with a puff of steam, his clothes were instantly dry-cleaned. He didn't notice the crew gaping at him, as he busied himself trying to check if his pocket watch still worked.

'Whoa, I guess my alchemy of closing it airtight saved its life! There's no water in there!,' he thought. He turned to Chopper, looking at him expectantly. He took his red coat, flung it over him, and waited for the Reindeer to lead them.

When they got to the library, he got a slight disappointment as to the amount of the books, since it seemed nowhere near the ones in Central Headquarters. He thanked Chopper and sat down on the wall-lined sofa with a book, getting quickly immersed in it.

* * *

Out on the deck, the crew were discussing about the newcomer.

"Did you see that?! He clapped, and then whoosh! But I don't think it did anything …" said Luffy. Actually, he did have an idea, but he wanted confirmation before spitting it out.

"I think that was supposed to make his clothes dry," said Nami, "I think it was the steam that puffed out then."

"His left leg is metal." Said Zoro, and all eyes went to him. "His feet sounded different from each other. The left one is heavier."

"Yeah, I heard that too. Damn, then he wasn't lying about his limbs …" said Sanji, one hand raking his hair.

"But that doesn't mean he didn't lie about other things." Said Franky.

Then, Chopper came out of the passage way from the library. "He's reading books." He said, "I don't think he's gonna sleep, I didn't answer me when I said that the breakfast was at 8."

"Well, I guess he didn't really hear you," said Nami.

"I guess…" mumbled Chopper.

The crew decided to retire themselves, but none of them got a wink of sleep until very, very, very late at night.


	4. Chapter 4

None of them got a wink of sleep until very, very, very late at night.

* * *

Ed didn't remember when he had fallen asleep, but when he had woken up, he was hungry. VERY hungry. Growling, he opened his pocket watch to check the time. 7.45. That was usually the time when people ate breakfast. Great.

Stretching himself and popping a few bones, he got up, straightened himself and walked out the door of the library, trying to remember the way to the deck. Hopefully he'd meet someone on the way to the kitchen.

* * *

It was 8.15 in the morning, and everyone was in the kitchen, eating breakfast, except for Chopper, who went to the library to get Edward. Everyone was just getting settled down when said reindeer barged in.

"He's not there!!" Yelled Chopper, sounding worried. "All his stuff is gone, too!"

"Does that mean that he was a spy?" Asked Usopp, to no one in particular.

"Che. We should have had a better eye on him. Who knows where he's hiding now." Commented Zoro.

"… He didn't seem like a bad guy… he didn't smell dangerous…" muttered Chopper.

"Maybe he's lost?" suggested Usopp.

"I'll go get him! … As soon as I finish off my 6th plate" said Luffy, picking up another dish of pancakes and omelettes.

"I'll go," said Nami, "I'm done eating anyways."

"But what if he tries to do a dirty trick on you, Nami Saaaaaaaan!" wailed Sanji, apparently very worried about Nami's (most beautiful women's) well being.

"I'll be fine, Sanji. I know how to deal with perverts." Said Nami.

"Yeah, you deal with them everyday." Added Zoro. Pointedly thinking about a certain cook.

"What did you say, Marimo!?" yelled Sanji.

* * *

"Dammit!! Where the hell am I?!" yelled Edward. He thought that he had gone through the right door when he got to another room. Then there was more walking, and a weird place, which he thought as the back of the ship, which had 6 small rooms which each contained different things. One didn't have anything. Curious, he went down to the 5 miniature 'ports', as he called them in his mind, and examined the vehicles in them. One looked like a motorcycle with a weird horse-head that went on sea, but he couldn't see any motors. He moved onto the one next to the water-cycle, to what looked like a 4 people mini-canoe. Only this one had two rows of two seats, with a … sheep's head as the prow. On the opposite side had a shark- resembling thing, which he thought as a diving device. It looked quite spacious. He ignored the vacant slot and was about to turn around when he got face to face with… a black hole. He quickly focused on the person holding onto the hole, Nami.

"Sigh Wh-"

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Nami, her voice strangely cold.

"Look I -" began Edward, but Nami cut in again.

"You're a spy, aren't you? Although, I don't really know what you're here to spy on, but you've got the information you want, and now you were going to steal one of our boats to get away, weren't you?" accused Nami coldly.

"Hey!" yelled Edward, seriously getting annoyed of being accused of something he did not commit. "I was just looking for the kitchen! This freaking ship is too freaking big and I got lost in it, okay?! Geez, overreact, much?"

"… What were you doing to our emergency boats?"

"I was just looking at them, they look…" Edward was looking for a suitable word for 'weird'. "… Interesting… by the way, you forgot the engine in the motorboat."

"… Don't expect us to leave you alone too much. Right now you are very suspicious to us." Said Nami. She started walking towards the kitchen.

"Gee, thanks. I'd like to quit losing myself in this labyrinth of a place, thankyouvairmuch," Muttered Ed, quickly following Nami to get to his … 45 minutes delayed breakfast.

* * *

The last few days after that passed on quite peacefully, until Usopp finally saw land from the crow's nest.

"YES!! We're FINALLY here!!" exclaimed Edward, being able to stand on land was not something he thought he'd be thanking. He inhaled the sea-stained air for a long time, as it would be, if he could, the last time he would smell it for a long, long while. Although it was nearing night time, he had a place to stay.

"Well, hope you're able to get back to Amestris, or wherever," Said Luffy, when they disembarked and waited for the log to be completed.

"Yeah well, same to you… for what ever you're gonna do. Thanks for the ride," said Ed, turning around to walk away from the ship. He had some place to go to contact the fuehrer of his state, namely a palace of a certain emperor.

* * *

"What do you mean, it takes AT LEAST A MONTH, for a log to be completed?!" Yelled Nami, obviously infuriated for the amount of time taken to be sailing out again. She had not expected to stay on the continent for more than a few weeks at most. The crew could not get any other logs because there were no other pirates, or even navy that came here, not ever since Gold D. Roger died. Grumbling, Nami turned away from the random-nearby-bookshop-owner-who- happened-to-know-about-the-world-outside-the-continent-and-who-happened-to-know-english (AN: I really wanted to do this). Shoulders slumped; she went back to the ship, wondering how to tell the guys about how they were going to spend a whole month, or maybe more.

* * *

"Ah! Is that you, Edward?" exclaimed the emperor of Xing, running down from his throne to meet his best friend. He looked… young, to be frank. About the same age as Edward, black hair tied to a low ponytail to get out of the way of the throne on his head. The long and light, one-sided fringe covered his right side of his face, and his usually grim and stern face was turned into a full bloom, toothy grin

"Yeah, long time no see, huh, Ling." Grinned Edward. Ling Yao was once 'possessed' by the homunculus Greed, in the quest of becoming the emperor of Xing. However, after Edward came back from the other side of the gate, he had somehow made only the Sin of Avarice root out of the host's body. Technically, Ling would still have the remaining philosopher's stone that made him un-ageing and un-dying, but as they were imperfect ones, they would run out eventually.

"What have you been up to? I've been SO bored ever since you got rid of him," complained Ling.

"You're actually missing him?" asked Edward, incredulous.

"Yeah, I mean, I can have a conversation with myself! And people thought I was crazy, and their faces would be all," said Ling, making a fake shocked façade. Edward laughed.

"Well gee, I'd like to talk to you and all, but I've got to confirm my situation with the top first, do you have a phone?"

"We don't usually use phone, we're 'traditional' and all that crap, but I got my personal one, but it's over by the throne. I don't let anybody touch it. It's my last lifeline to civilized world!! Not that I think Amestris is better than Xing. I mean, Xing is so much better-"

"Phone." said Edward, interrupting the otherwise endless rant of 'Xing's Awesomeness'.

"Right" grinned Ling.

AN: Great thanks to **Alch3mist** for reviewing, and all the other people who bothered themselves to read this crappy fic!!

mrawgirl09


	5. Chapter 5

"Right" grinned Ling.

* * *

Rrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrr-

"Fuhrer Mustang's office, how may I help you?"

"Hey! Hawkeye! Still working away? I thought only the Bastard did over time!"

"… Edward, you're late for your weekly reporting." Said the blonde identified as Hawkeye. "The Fuhrer is currently out."

"Aw, come on" whined Edward, "I've survived a shipwreck, cut me some slack. Tell Mustang not to fret, I'll be there by… next week."

"Next week? Why so late?"

"Because … Just because."

"… Edward, I want you to take the next car to Amestris right now or else I am going to go to Xing to shoot you."

"Hey! I was just kidding! I really want the week off. I only just got together with my best friend; I really want to see what's new. Look, I'll use it off my vacation. Okay?"

"… Fine, but as soon as you finish your 'vacation', you're coming straight to the Fuhrer's office, young man."

"Okay, okay. I promise a new collar for Hayate too. Thanks!"

* * *

A dark figure was standing in a pitch black room. The outside world was raining, the harsh raindrops hitting on the window, winds whipping against the building, as if trying to push it over. A flash of light lit up the room, an office, for a second. A silhouette of a man, hair flowing down his sides, barely touching the light fabric of a … miniskirt. His hands went to his face, half covering it by combing the hair over. Flash. His eyes were violet, and his hair was charcoal black with maybe hints of greenish texture; his palms were covered in fingerless gloves. As the light flashed again, his face contorted into a wicked, joyful grin.

"It looks like he's going to be here sooner than he was supposed to be," said the man, "Hurry up, Sloth. We have to get our new brother ready… for work, tomorrow. If he lives, that is…" he then walked out of the room. Moments later, he poked his head back into the doorway, saying "By the way, do you know where Hawkeye lives?

The lightning flashed again, this time contouring the image of a young woman, in one of her arms an unconscious man, limp as a doll. Another flash. She was wearing a black tube top with black jump suit, zipped down to her waist. Flash. At her silky smooth back, a small, red, round tattoo of what it seemed like a dragon eating its tail was visible on the right shoulder blade. Her face turned to the irritating clouds, the remnants of the previous lightning showed her sleep-drawn face.

"No." was the answer. The man scowled, and disappeared.

Her sky blue eyes followed the movement, her blonde hair swaying in the high ponytail; her name was Winry Rockbell, and she was Sloth.

"… I hope he hasn't broken his automail again…" the habitual comment slipped through her lips, "… idiot." She then looked down at Roy Mustang. The man was going to have to do something about the habit of wandering into the lifeless office when drunk, without his ignition gloves. "I guess it's too late anyways…" she mumbled. Sloth turned her eyes back at the place where Envy was a moment ago.

The sin had found another way of making his allies, which didn't count alchemy. Not directly, anyways. The same way the previous Fuhrer was produced, with incomplete stones flowing in the body. Envy had also found out about the only muscle in a human body he could use to manipulate Winry into obeying… One that the homunculi did not need but a human did. He had taken Pinako's heart, locking it away somewhere hidden, leaving Winry to become one of them to earn money for Pinako's survival.

The process had been painful, extremely painful. She had wondered if people who had automail attached felt the same. But it wouldn't, would it? It wouldn't be as painful as knowing one's limb can't be replaced. She sighed, and silently followed Envy out of the office. She was getting tired anyways. He's drunk, this should be easy.

Edward… Edward would set them free.

* * *

After the call, Edward and Ling (having cancelled all meetings for later) took their time in explaining each other of their lives in their places. Edward was explaining of his studies in Germany on Rocket Science when he noticed that the prince was falling asleep. He, being the boy genius, realized that they had talked for 9 hours straight and it was well past 4 in the morning. Feeling sorry for the emperor, as he was due to his duties again by the start of the day, sent Ling away to his dreamland of fluffy soft silk bed in his room (of course, Ran fan had to drag him there) and went to his guest room on the opposite wing. Maybe tomorrow he would go around the market and see if there are any types of special guns that Hawkeye would accept for his lateness/life.

* * *

"We should've followed Edward. At least he knows the area. We could've gone to this Amestris place … I wanted to see more alchemyyyyyyyyy…" whined Luffy.

"Hey guys, I'm going to go to the market tomorrow, the refrigerator is almost empty." Said Sanji, preparing dinner.

"Buy lots and lots of meat!" said Luffy, "And liquor." Added Zoro. Sanji ignored the two idiots.

"Do you think we could stop by a bookstore?" asked Chopper.

"Take me too; I want to know if there are any types of new weaponry here. Maybe we could enhance our own?" said Usopp.

"We're running out of nails, too. Could you get them for me?" Said Franky.

"Nails… huh. Anything I could get for you, ladiiiiiiees? Nami Saaaaaaan? Robiiiin Chaaaan?" asked Sanji, eyes turning into hearts.

"It's okay; I'll go with you guys tomorrow for the currency exchange. Robin would most likely come with us too, won't you, Robin?" asked Nami.

"Of course, Ms. Navigator. I was actually hoping to go with Mr. Doctor to the bookstore." Smiled Robin.

With that, the crew ate dinner, which was exceptionally good regarding that the only ingredients left were leftovers and cheese and crackers, and went to bed. In Zoro's case, he stayed up until 2 in the morning for his nightly exercise of swinging 4 tons of iron.

* * *

AN.

Thank you SO MUCH EVERYONE!! I got REVIEWS!! faints

Also thanks to Giant-flying-radish-of-doom and jenelrid for reminding me that I forgot to explain some things such as a devil's fruit user being able to swim!! ;;

And of course, thanks so much for all your love!!

mrawgirl09

... ...

.. Although... I won't really expect much... scrambles to the corner... I just realized that this story does not have that much of a great plot... angst mode


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

It was not as great a field the pirate crew thought it would be. They did not have currency, and they did not know the land. However, they thought that those obstacles would be easy to go over if they asked the natives. But then, they had walked flat to the wall of language. None of the crew knew about the language in Xing, and thus couldn't do, find, or say anything to save their lives.

"Hel - lo? I - would - like - to – know – where – the – market - is!" said Sanji, trying to make the other understand with each word pronounced with body language. He was getting frustrated when the 5th person he had spoken with had turned away to run off in some odd direction. Nami, Robin, Chopper-in his human form, wrapped in clothes, of course- and Usopp were all behind him, as none of them knew where to go off on their own. They had started off in different direction when they discovered the language spoken in Xing was totally different in what they had spoken in the Grand Line. The whole situation was getting way too tiring when someone spoke to him in (thank god) English.

"Are you an Amestrian? What are you talking about?"

Sanji turned around, as did the others, and saw a boy with black hair, tied in the back in a thick pony tail, leaving a one-sided bang on the right side of his face. He had a toothy grin plastered on his face, and his eyes were closed–how was he able to see?- and his clothes were almost too revealing, as he only had a yellow-orange jacket with a white … pants which closed off around his ankles.

"Thank God, I thought we were going to stay like this for-" Sanji started, relieved, when a voice, almost too familiar, cut him off.

"Ling! She's right around the corner! Get moving already!! I don't want to d-"

The blond they had only seen off yesterday was sprinting towards them as if his life was on the line. Edward Elric. The black-haired boy, now identified as Ling, got pale, and started to run as well, quickly managing to say "Sorry!" as he passed them. Edward seemed to ignore the crew as he quickly followed Ling, when all of a sudden; they were blocked with a black-clad ninja with a white and red mask.

"Ah!" Ling just managed to stop right before the ninja when Edward bumped into him, landing them both onto a pile of limbs on the dusty ground.

"Master!! How many times must I remind you that you must not run off on your duties? You know that the country cannot rule itself, and that the emperor's job does not allow you to slack off and- You!! " The voice that came out of the ninja's mask was quite feminine, and the rant was quickly redirected to the figure of the young blonde who was trying to escape unnoticed.

"Hey, I swear, I did NOT take him away from his job!! I was just in the library, minding my own business, and he just runs at me yelling that I should run and-" Edward tried to reason with the ninja, and while the argument was raging, the black-haired boy backed away from the scene to the dumbfounded pirates.

"-Sorry about that," said Ling, "looks I got caught anyways, so… are you looking for something?"

Nami snapped out of her stupor, and asked, "Um, Yes, we were looking for the market and somewhere to exchange currency. A bookstore would be nice, too."

"Ah yes! It's this way," said Ling, starting off to another direction. "I hope Ed would be able to hold her off for another moment or so ..." he muttered.

The crew did not say anything until they had walked a fair distance away from the other two. Chopper and Usopp were somewhere around the back, slowing down for sightseeing. Sanji spoke up.

"So, uh… you know Edward?"

"Ah! Are you one of Edward's acquaintances?" asked Ling, surprised. Usually when people knew Edward, they would have gone to him, rather than wait for Ling to speak to them. Perhaps they were not that close to each other. "Yes, I do. If I may say so myself, I'm his best friend!" Grinned Ling, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Ling Yao! And you are?"

"Sanji." Said the blonde cook, "This here's Nami," he pointed at the red-haired navigator, who smiled and nodded "Robin," the black haired woman acquiesced. Sanji then pointed at the two sightseers at the back and said, "… and Chopper's the small one and Usopp with the long nose. We're from overseas. I heard that they don't come here anymore."

"Yes, no one comes to our ports anymore, but we haven't gotten rid of it. No one would care if a pirate ship embarked on it." Said Ling, seemingly off-handedly. The group tensed a very short time, but it was enough for the emperor to acknowledge as being right.

".. Hum, anyways. You don't know how much we needed someone who could speak English. Every time we talked to someone they would just turn away." Said Sanji.

"It's probably because they were going to find someone who could speak English. My people aren't that heartless. I can speak Amestrian because of international connections. An emperor needs to know their neighbouring country's language." Said Ling.

"You're an Emperor?" asked Nami, eyes turning into beli's.

"Yes, although right now I would not like to be called such. I don't want to give away my presence. … But enough about me. How do you know Edward?"

"He's been in a shipwreck, we saved him, and we spent 3 days together." Said Sanji simply.

"… And by your explanation I think he didn't tell you much about himself."

"Yes, more or less." Replied Robin.

"He's the diplomat between Xing and Amestris," said Ling, "Although he and I were friends since we were 15, we haven't seen each other for 3 years."

"Where was he?"

"No one knows, except for his most trusted people around him, including I. The story was that he had been in over-border infiltration missions for the military."

The conversation stopped around when they neared a bank, and Ling translated their situation to the counter. The beli's were changed into cenz, and the currency in the book had been different from the present. It was 10 cenz to 130 beli.

"This is ridiculous!!" shouted Nami, furious that their money was worth almost nada in the new 'world'.

"Wow. The newspaper costs 2 cenz. That makes it… 26 beli news paper." Said Ling.

"Sigh I guess we'll have to use some other treasures for this. We are not trading hundreds of beli's so that we can use it only here! We'll have to go back to the ship to get them." Said Nami. Chopper, who was just listening to the deal, chose to speak up. "Hey Nami, I have some of my share of treasures, we could use that for today! Hey Ling, do you know where we could change gold into money?"

"We can do it here; they deal with all things monetary." Replied Ling. The voice of the man did not coincide with the shape or the size. He must be like Al was, but then his body did not make hollow noises like the suit of armour. He would need to investigate more. Ling's thoughts were interrupted when Chopper pulled chunks of gold and precious jewels out of his bag onto the counter. Those treasures were definitely not lies nor bluffs.

* * *

When Roy first opened his eyes by the annoying alarm's beeping, the only thing he saw was the ceiling of his home.

Odd. The New Sin, now gaining control over the owner of the body, was sure that his host had been drunk and in the empty office, waiting for the non- existent old friend would come and talk to him.

He had moved his eyes around the room,-bedroom, he suspected,-and saw the familiar closet, bookcase, loveseat, the rug and the fireplace. He did not remember what had happened, but he did know these: he was the Fuhrer of Amestris, Roy Mustang. He was Lust, the homunculus. He was supposed to follow orders. Of whom … ah, Envy. Him.

Wracking his brain to remember, he got up the king-sized bed, out of his blue covers and pillows to the lavish bathroom. As he dragged his feet towards the bathroom, surprisingly with poise, Roy Mustang passed his full-size metal-framed mirror, reflecting his rather sleepy condition.

His hair was a mess, but still fell gracefully down from their disorder, down to hang over his eyes. They were obsidian blue, so dark that one could fall into the depth and never manage to get out. His fine-muscled chest and back was covered with a white, shrivelled shirt, where he had let open a few buttons. His legs were still encased in the military issued blue pants.

He was still thinking deeply about his unequal treaty with the sin when he was brushing his teeth. He did notice, with a grimace on his face, the small red sigil; a red, winged dragon, swirling over to bite its tail, resting on the middle of his collar bone.

Then he remembered. The exchange. A heart for a heart, equivalent exchange. But now Roy himself had to obey the Sin to acquire the red stones for his own survival.

But he would not just sit back and enjoy the show… Envy was about to make Ed theirs and the Sin only seemed to know how to make one by deal, allowing the host to retain memory. This gave the new sins an advantage, and if only they played along, letting Envy think that he had won, the rest of the sins will unite to regain their freedom, and Wrath, Sloth, and Lust w-

Roy sighed. That sounded stupid. He'd first have to get Lust out of his mind. He would NEVER let Edward go through the same process.

Roy spit out the toothpaste and thought: 'Well, at least Hawkeye won't know about this…'

* * *

AN. ... Sigh. I got bored waiting for the stories that I read here and I just up and decided to update... two in one day... Maybe three... I don't know... I don't have anything to do... Maybe I should draw... Or do some fanfic-fanart that I thought of doing... blah. Oh well. Anyone who has comments/reprimands/suggestions/just random blah, press the review button!

mrawgirl09


	7. Chapter 7

After the deal, each of the people of the crew had about 432 thousand cenz each. It was probably the same amount in beli's if they had exchanged it in other islands, so this deal was much, much better than what they would have had in any other places. When they had exited the bank, they saw Edward walking by with his dark red coat hanging behind him. He wasn't really that hard to spot. His sun-kissed blond hair was very noticeable in the sea of blacks, and his cowlick made him stand out by about 4 inches over everyone.

"Hey, Edward!!" Yelled Ling, before anyone could say anything. Edward turned around and saw … very familiar faces.

"Ling? The p… what are you guys doing here? I thought you were leaving as soon as you finished with your businesses?" asked Edward.

"Well, we've had some problems…" began Nami.

* * *

After the explanation, Ling had offered the crew to stay over at his palace, but they had refused, as they had their ship to return to for now. Edward agreed that they would follow him to Central, as it was the same direction. It was decided that they would visit the two main towns that Ed knew best, Youswell and Xenotime. Although, they had to leave right away for the trip to fit in Ed's week off.

"I only have a week off, so I am not going to stay more than a few days, maybe only for a day or two in Youswell and Xenotime. So, you guys should hurry up in anything you want to see, do or buy," said Edward, when they had reached the train station. The Thousand Sunny Go was being held onto by the emperor, making sure that no one would dare and ship-nap or steal anything in the ship.

"A day or two is all we need," replied Robin.

"Eeeeh?! But I wanted to sightsee!! And buy souvenirs!! And eat!!" whined Luffy.

"Eating shouldn't take you more than a day," said Edward, buying the tickets. "There are no 'specialties', as you would say. Well, there are lemons in Xenotime, but Youswell's a mining town. All you could get there might be coal. Oh, and uh… do you have enough money?" asked Edward suddenly.

"… Is about 736000 cenz enough?" asked Nami.

"That's…not enough." said Edward, after calculating the cost of dinner and night at 'the' regular inn. The last time he had been there he had to pay 200000 for two people, until he was kicked out because of being a dog of the military. The group had 8 people and that would mean… 800000 cenz. But only if the price hadn't changed. Ed didn't want to give false hope...

"What?!" Chopper was so surprised, as when they were shopping in Xing; one medical book only cost around 20 to 50 cenz at the most.

Edward glared momentarily at the small, clothes-clad raccoon-like … thing. Only yesterday it was as big as him, and now it was like it had been: up to his thighs. There was something very wrong with this kid. Homunculus?

"It would probably have changed, … Maybe." Ended Edward lamely. "I haven't been there since I was 12, it would probably have changed."

"Why have you been there?" asked Franky. He was dressed 'normally', as in a blue T-shirt and jeans, as Edward had a fit when he heard that he would go in his usual attire, a flower- pattern shirt and Speedos.

"Military stuff. Basically I was just going there because I had to do some simple missions for the colonel, or else the military wouldn't be too keen on keeping me there," said Edward, finding a compartment. He and the crew settled down. Surprisingly, everyone fit in.

"Me and my brother went there, and then it was ruled by a corrupt lieutenant whose name I don't care enough to remember, like making them pay high taxes and giving them low salaries." Said Edward, while putting his newly-bought simple suitcase in the overhead.

"That reminds me of what my village was like," said Nami. "There was this gang of pirates who took over our village as hostage for me to work under them as their map maker."

"Ooh. I guess it worked out well," said Ed. Nami looked at him with a blank look. "Well, you're here with these people, and you don't have the 'hate' (here he used two fingers to quote) feeling coming off you, and well, 7 people does not seem to be enough to take over a town."

The crew laughed. Usopp said, "No, there were only the first 5 people; Luffy, me, Nami, Zoro and Sanji then. I led the team to save her town from the thousands of pirates and a mer-cow monster! It was I, of course, who did all the work."

"… Uh-huh. Somehow, I don't believe you," said Edward, "but I digress. Then, the money source they could get was the very rare tourists that came there, and so they dragged me to an inn. Then, for me and my brother, the fee was 200 000 cenz.

I didn't pay it, though. I fixed things with alchemy, and the inn keeper was familiar with one. But when I told them my name, they kicked me out."

"Why would they kick out a person because of their name?" asked Sanji.

"My name was quite well known then. Edward Elric equalled to Full Metal Alchemist, the State's Prodigy, Military's lapdog, blah, blah, and blah-de-blah, and alchemists in the military were also called the Dog of the Military."

"The Dog of the Military?" asked Franky.

"'Alchemist, be thou for the people.' State alchemists were exceptions to the rule, and because of that, we were hated throughout the country.

So, because of my status in the military I ended up in the lieutenant's house, I got mad that he was living in riches while the rest suffered, and that son of a bitch burned the inn I was talking to you about, and so… he got what he deserved."

"What did you do?" asked Zoro.

"What makes you think that I did anything to him?" asked Edward, innocently, his face betraying his sweet voice.

"You just had this very dark, evil looking smile just now," said Chopper, with deer-in- headlight eyes.

"Pfft!! Hahahah!! It was so hilarious!!" Edward suddenly burst in his seat, reminiscing. "Okay, so this place we're going is a coal mine, right? And there are a lot of these scrap rocks and coals, and I made it into gold and-"

"Hey wait! You said on the ship that you couldn't make gold!" interrupted Usopp.

"I meant what I said. It's illegal," said Edward, simply. "Besides, there were no materials that I could change into gold. So anyways-

I went to that mansion of his and told him that I would buy the mine off him with the transmuted gold, and we made an agreement that I didn't give him anything cause I told him that making gold was illegal and then just before I came out of his mansion, I turned all the gold back into coal!! And then, when that guy came asking for the deed back, the miners (and I) beat the shit out of him!"

The compartment roared in laughter. The pirates didn't know that the person they had saved was so much fun…until now. "Yeah, and so, I took the deed to the inn, and I sold it off for 200000. One night for two, Equivalent Exchange," smiled Edward, after having had a good laugh.

"Hahahah!! You're so funny!! You really should come in our crew!! As a … a storyteller!!" roared Luffy, still laughing.

"Heh, no thanks. I like working legally," said Edward, "besides, I do more than storytelling … I just had a more… interesting life than others."

"Tell us more!! Tell us more!!" chanted Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp.

"Nah, I'm not one to be telling his life story to others like some old man," Ed waved them and their puppy eyes off, "besides, it'd take forever." Said Edward, and he looked away from the crew to gaze at the passing scenery.

* * *

"You're late, sir." Said his secretary, when he had got through the maze of an headquarter. It was weird having to look out with one eye when he had two-very sexy ones, in his opinion- good eyes, just to pretend that he was an incomplete human. Hawkeye. Her breasts were looking especially good today. The host's protests were getting louder. "Good morning to you too, Major." He replied politely. He went into his office, sat down in his chair, and started on his paperwork. Like he did most of the days Full Metal was not in central. He started to think about what, or rather who, he would do when he would be out of work. Maybe some quickies in the closet with whoever would be in his way when he felt l-NO! He must control himself, he, Roy Mustang, would NOT become Lust, the Sin.

"Colonel Full Metal is late for his reporting, sir." Said … Jean Havoc, thankfully disrupting the pitiful human's mind. The smoker. Another Major. Currently lacks any girlfriends. He'd probably have some pent up wants t- Control, his host's mind objected.

Full Metal… Full Metal… "The shrimp," he unconsciously murmured, as he remembered the perfect ass that boy-NO!- had in those leather pants, "won't be coming here for about a week. He demanded a vacation, so I granted it." … Havoc stared at the Fuhrer as he worked. Working would sort his mind; there was no risk of getting turned on by paperwork.

His other colleagues were also beginning to stare at him.

Lust, already bored to destruction, switched the control to autopilot-Roy Mustang. His eyes became more focused, and started on the papers that saved his mind. This did not go on for long. He started to scribble random things on the edges of a grant certification, probably about a raise of salary. His left hand had unconsciously bent up, supporting his chin as he twirled his pen in his fingers. His eyes started to droop, but the unconscious fear of being shot at by the hawk kept his face away from colliding with the desk. When Hawkeye went out to return the completed paperwork and get new ones, he had started to clean his office. The sofas were looking dirty, as there was a tiny splotch of back dirt at the bottom of the left hand rest; the windows seemed to be a little fuzzy, and the coffee table was also lacking its usual glow of transparent shininess.

By the time Lust came back to Roy's mind demanding action other than cleaning, the stare had been gone.

* * *

AN. thanks to EverlastingDreamer and Alch3mist for reviewing!!

Bored... bored... bored... bored... goes to sleep

mrawgirl09


	8. Chapter 8

_By the time Lust came back to Roy's mind demanding action other than cleaning, the stare had been gone._

* * *

When they had arrived in the mine town, they were met by happy scenery with people smiling and mine entrances everywhere. While Luffy's crew were talking to people about sightseeing and other treats, Edward strayed off to a nearby inn to which he was most familiar with.

"Heya guys!! Missed me?!" Yelled Edward, slamming the door open.

"Edward!!" a boy, about similar in height as Ed, in a shoulder strap black pants, ran to him.

"Hey Kayal! How's it going?" Said Edward, petting the boy's head. The boy was tall, but not as tall as he. Ed thought, defensibly.

"Whoa… Is it really you?" asked Kayal, "You look kinda… tall...er. Still short, though. And stop petting me, it's annoying. We're about the same height."

"Heh, well too bad. I'm still taller than you! Hah!" Ed grinned, "I got some piggybanks for ya, and they could crash here too. We'll only be here for the night."

"Sure! I'll go call dad. How many are there? Hey DAD!!" The boy named Kayal turned to the back door near the counter, where some scrambling was heard.

"Uhh… 7 and a half?" Ed said. "What's that supposed to mean?" "There's this little kid with them. They're from abroad."

A man suddenly emerged from the back door. His hair was dirty blonde, and he was wearing a white T shirt and blown slacks, both clothes dirtied by the coal dust everywhere on town. He seemed to be around his late forties, and very lively. "What is it, Kayal- who are you talking to is he another customer?" His eyes stayed on Ed's face with a frown of confusion.

"Are you going blind? Or are you just pretending that you never seen me before in your life?" Said Edward, smirking as he crossed his arms. The man's eyes got bigger in surprise. "Edward? What are you doing here?"

"I was just passing by and I thought, why not stay here for a while? So, I'm here. You got rooms and dinner for 9?"

"It's expensive?" the man grinned, and suddenly Ed remembered the incredulous amount of money the innkeeper had first suggested when he had come when he was 12.

"Please don't tell me you haven't changed in 7 years." Ed groaned, grasping onto the tiny silver of hope that it wasn't so. The man's grin widened and a sparkle (must be a hallucination) appeared next to his face.

" 900000."

Edward blurted out "WHAT THE HELL!!" the moment the cost was told. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

"Hahahh!! Just joking! Why in the world would anyone charge that much anymore? It's 300 cenz for each two-people bedroom, with breakfast and dinner." Said Kayal's father (AN: I don't know his real name), his grin unwavering as he put his palm out. He turned to his son and said, "Kayal, get Ed's bag to his room," to which, Kayal obeyed.

"It's still expensive," Edward grumbled. "I'll pay mine now; the rest of the group will come later. They'll each pay their own price." The inn keeper handed him a key with a wooden block with a room number carved on it. And with that, Edward turned on his heel and left the inn/restaurant with a flap of his coat, a bang of the front door and a shout of a "Hey! Watch with the door!!".

* * *

Somewhere near the inn, a brawny man covered in hair almost every where but his head, was trying to understand what the young men were trying to convince him to let them do.

"… You want to ride … the mine cart?"

"Please? I wanna ride!!" Luffy, with eyes sparkling. He was most obviously ignoring the comments from Usopp about having an unknown disease of dying of heart attack when going on scary rides, and Chopper was sparkling his eyes as best as he could to experience, as Luffy said: 'most awesome-est ride in the whole sea is to ride on a rollercoaster but since there isn't any here we can ride on that cave-ride!!' "We'll pay for it!! How much is it?"

"…150 cenz." Said the miner, jokingly.

The boys, except for Usopp, all yelled "YESS!!" Luffy called back to the rest of his crew from the nearby ice cream shop. "Hey Nami, Robin, Sanji, Zoro!!"

The said people looked over from the bench near the mouth of the mine. "I don't even know why you want to ride on this-"

"GAH!!" The miner quickly turned red and looked away. "What do you think you're wearing!! It's too revealing!! (AN: Déjà vu much? ;)) We're only coal miners here!! Get some clothes on for Pete's sake!! There's too much flesh showing!!" He yelled at Nami and Robin. Nami was wearing a simple blue skirt that went halfway to her thighs, and a white sleeveless shirt that had a heart-which stretched when it was worn-with blue trims. Nami's hat was a yellow one with a large hem and a huge ping ribbon tied around the base. Her shoes were sky- blue stilettos, shining from the sun. Robin, as usual, was wearing all black, from head to toe. She didn't wear any hat, but had a black scarf around her neck, even though it was mid-summer, and a no-sleeved black shirt and a loose-yet seemingly too tight-shorts that came just below her knees. Her black shoes shone in contrast to Nami's stilettos, in their own mystical gleam.

When Luffy came over to gather them to the cart, Nami protested. "Hey! Who said we're all going?! I don't want to go on THAT! It'll ruin my clothes! And I'm not going to pay you know!! Use your own money!!"

"I'd rather stay on the ground, too." Said Robin, smiling mystically as she licked off some ice cream (AN: how does she do it, I don't know.).

At that moment, Ed came running over at the group, waving his hand over his head. "Hey guys! I got where we're gonna stay!!" He was soon grabbed by his left arm and shoved into a cart with a small lump, a very much trembling Usopp and Zoro, Franky and Sanji fighting-over- seats (AN: sorry for the interruption-again! But I really wanted to see these three scream). Luffy sang-half yelled: "YEAH! Ed, go on the ride with us!!"

Ed's eyes became wide as he processed the information. "Say WHAT?! Hey wait a second! What are you talking about! Hey!! Listen to me when I say somethi- aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!" His cries were unheard as the cart began to move, into the darkness, and to his utter shock, an almost 90 degree downhill. His eyes began to get cold from the damp, coldness of the cave. From time to time he would see a flicker of a light, but aside from that, he was keeping himself from falling out of the cart with all his automail-hand-might. Beside him, Luffy was grinning and shouting wildly, ("YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!") while Usopp, Franky and Chopper were screaming their heads off towards the back ("AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…."). Zoro and Sanji, stuck in the middle part of the cart, were uncharacteristically silent for the whole trip, sporting an unhealthy kind of pale on their faces. It seemed like neither of them would show their disturbance unless/until the other gave up before them.

* * *

When the boys finally got out of the cart, Luffy was trembling with joy, others with motion sickness. "It… was…. AWESOME!! Let's go again!! I'll pay!!" While the rest of the strawhat crew shuffled over as far as they could, Edward started to yell at Luffy when the captain dumped himself and Edward back onto the ride for another run.

"HELL NO!! I AM NOT GOING ON THAT THING FUCKING AGAIN LETMEGOORELSEI'LLFUCKINGTRANSMUTEYOUINTOAFUCKINGSACKOFPOTATOESDAMN YOUFUCKINGJERKFAC-EEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA……"

* * *

Alphonse was, for the first time, dreading his visit to his brother's newest friend. The weather seemed like it was going to rain… He thought of the things he could say to somehow let the man escape… but the plans were either too obvious or too suspicious, most both. His feet reached the light brown door to Heidereich's room, next to his and the bathroom. Sighing once, twice, and he entered.

His doppelganger was currently trying to understand why his array for making a wooden box had made the blacks of firewood was transmuted into tiny little pieces of splinters. He giggled, not as much as like what a 15 year old teenaged boy would do, and helped by pointing out the slightly crooked line of the square inside. Alfonse looked at him gratefully, yet somewhat pissed at himself that he couldn't figure it out alone. Oh how ignorant a human can be!-sang a voice in Alphonse's head. He grimaced. Oh the irony.

The lights outside was slowly turning blood red to dark brown; they would come soon. Envy was speeding things up before brother returned home. Heidereich's cough was getting harsher by day, and Al now knew by the symptoms that her mother had, according to the books, he had about a year till he had his end. But that, Al thought, would make him very, very sad. And the other person in him mad. He seemed to like to play with the man, and not in a joyful way.

Oh if only Alfonse knew what horrific deal he would be making with the Sin.

Alphonse was thankful that he decided to leave his one-sided bangs the way they were. It helped covering up the tiny tattoo above his right eye lid.

And the sun reached the horizon. Envy doesn't like plans going astray, he'd probably hurt Alfonse if they were late… "Hey Alfonse, I was wondering that maybe tonight I could crash at your room…" began Wrath. The irony of loosing the most important limb after just regaining the body was painful. It was for Winry's sake, or so he thought, and only after he had given up his heart had he known it was a fake. He would do the same thing to Heidereich, and it felt horrible already.

He wouldn't be able to check the city tonight…

* * *

AN. hmm... I just made Ed scared of heights... Oh well! By the way, Al says that he'd left the bangs because he'd cut off that ponytail of his ... It's not that I hate it... I just prefer him with short hair. And making him lose his eye would be ugly, so there's only a small tattoo on his eye lid. Roy's Lust, not Envy. Winry got caught first, then Alphonse, and then Roy. I skip names around because that shows the ... uhhh.. 'switch' in 'spirits' in the body... Like Lust could be controlling Roy's hands, while Roy is still in control of minds... etc. Oh, and that last sentence would be enlightened later on.

Also, Thanks to Alch3mistas always and Everlasting Dreamer who proved to me that they are reading this fic!! V Thankyouverymuch!

...Would you kill me if I said that I wouldn't be able to update for a month? Cause my friend told me so... and she writes fanfics... only not in english... bleh.

mrawgirl09


	9. Chapter 9

_He wouldn't be able to check the city tonight…_

* * *

It was after sundown that Ed, Luffy and his gang had arrived to the inn. The crew members slept in pairs, to conserve money. Zoro, to Edward's dismay, had to stay with him because somehow the girls each wanted a room, and thus he was the only one left without a room.

"… I still feel sick…bleargh…" said Ed, while walking towards their room. "I already paid the room this time, but at the next town, you're paying."

"Whatever." was all Ed got for the rest of the night.

"It's been a while since I've last been here. I wonder if the Tringham Brothers are still here." Muttered Edward, stepping off the train. The sky was still blue, and there was still that scent of lemon in the air. While Edward sent off the crew for the usual 6 hours sightseeing, he went off to report on his situation to Mustang.

* * *

"Fuhrer Mustang's office," said the familiar voice of…

"Havoc?" asked Edward. "What are you doing on the phone?"

"Oh, hey chief." Said Havoc. "Boss' out for lunch with one of his dates, Hawkeye's been searching him high and low; there is a still growing stack of immediate attention files on Fuhrer's desk. And I thought by now he would have gotten married."

"Huh. Figures." Grumbled Edward. "Anyways, here's my report. I still have some free days left till I have to go back, so I'm currently in Xenotime, accompanying some people to Central. They'll be here for about a month, maybe. They wanted to see about our country."

"Ah. Tourist work?" asked Havoc.

"Hell no," shuddered Ed, "Tell them I'd be at central by tomorrow morning, I'll be at the office by 0900."

"Will do, chief" responded Havoc, and Edward hung up.

* * *

Ed officially began searching for the 'imitation brothers'. Additionally, he was officially stuck. The best answer so far with enough details in it was from an old, old person who didn't seem to see his face. He had said that the Tringhams moved to central to aim higher, working at someplace or another until Russell turned 17, the allegeable age for attempting the first examination of state alchemy.

"Huh. I guess I'll see him anyways. … Damn. Then that means I'll have to see his smug face every day in HQ!!"

"Why do you hate him so much?" asked the little…deer. He had stopped calling the huge hatted animal a squirrel when he saw hooves on its paw.

"I don't hate him;" He replied, silently scolding himself to hold his bitter tongue, "I just don't like his smug-smirks and all-high-and-mighty-attitude!!"

"Hey! There's a lemon-candy shop!" Luffy suddenly squawked. All of the idiots, as Ed named them all except for the two ladies, the cook and the 'marimo'. They were all squealing things like, "It's really sour!!" or "But it's sweet!!" or "Lemon pie!!" or some other stupid things.

"Hello, pretties, your beautiful scent lured me to your blossoming grace-" Sanji- was it?- was suddenly at the sides of a beautiful woman, who was blushing like mad, and a weak-looking man becoming red as well, for a different reason, besides the woman. Ed rethought about his list of 'idiots in pirate crew'.

"At least there aren't any scary rides or anything," he grumbled. Oh how wrong he was.

"Uuoooo!! It's a very scary looking ride!! Let's go on it!! Ed!!" Luffy's eyes were sparkling with delight. Not good, NOT good. Since when was there an amusement park in Xenotime anyways?!

"Ah, people with kids started to come to Xenotime a few years ago because the cities were too expensive, and the kids were bored, so the Tringham brothers made an amusement park in a free land before they went to Central. They will only open during the weekends, though." Supplied helpfully the old man he got the doubtful information from.

Only this time, Sanji dropped out, leading himself to the market, while Zoro and Franky went to the bar, requiring each their respective power drinks.

"Eeeeeeaaaaaaaarrgh!!" Edward was hauled away by a strong arm, towards the railway of doom. Besides him were the two happy idiots of Usopp and Chopper who followed them not for the rides, but for the food.

Behind the disappearing four, a cat with violet eyes stared at the scene with a blank face. Zoro, while coming out of the bar with 3 bottles of whiskey, saw the cat with an ominous presence stare at the four people gone, especially what he thought was a flailing Edward. The cat flicked its tail, transformed into a mouse, and scurried away. Zoro glared at the back of the rat, silently debating with himself whether to chase or not. He chose not.

* * *

In the middle of a dark room, splashed with blood, laid a man. His hair was whitish-gold, and the closed eyes opened up to reveal a pale blue sky.

He had heard the busy movements around him, and the pang of iron stench fading away to salty and damp ones of tears. Alphonse must be crying, he thought. The pain in his chest had gone, along with an organ essential to him. He had thought that he would do anything for his life to be extended a little more to finish his life's project. But not in this way.

Alfonse got up on his elbows, hands, knees, and soon to his feet. He moved around, in an attempt to help. He clapped, knowing what would happen. Unfamiliar green lights engulfed his hands, reconstructing the vase that he had shattered during his resistance against Alphonse. Wrath, he stood corrected.

Green, he thought. Interesting. Alphonse and Edward's were blue… Why was his green?

Washing up the walls with a wet rag, Alfonse thought of how he started to want everything, anything, and that made him sick. The Elric was not looking Heidereich in the eye, and the speed of scrubbing the room picked up a pace.

Both of them cleaned the room in silence.

Alfonse' eyes unconsciously slid to the State Alchemist pocket watch Alphonse had gotten from the Fuhrer. Al wasn't a soldier, but he was considered as one among the people. The watch was a gift as thanks to Al's help to the military. And before Alfonse knew it, his hands were crawling towards the watch, before it was snatched away by the Elric. Flustered, Alfonse returned to scrubbing the floor with a new vigour. He felt so … guilty.

Wrath's anger was soon masked by the guilty face of Alphonse.

"I'm sorry…" said Alphonse, quietly as he scrubbed the blood from the floor. "I lied…"

"Excuse me?" asked Alfonse, already dreading the answer.

"Brother is still alive… human, I mean." Said Alphonse, eyes already brimming with tears.

Heidereich was not devastated. He knew by his own deal that the new Sins had to obey Envy, and Al was probably doing his job…what he felt was the embarrassment of thinking that Edward would be that easily defeated, taken hostage of, and how, even though he didn't buy the whole lie at all, he accepted the deal for eternal life away from his pain.

Besides, he only became a homunculus; he did not lose his heart as did Alphonse.

Alfonse scooted over to the sobbing teen, and hugged him, silently comforting the boy, as he watched with disgust the pig's heart Alphonse picked as a replacement for his, floating inside a jar in red water, sealed with complicated alchemic circles.

* * *

The next morning, when Zoro woke up, there wasn't the usual blonde mass over at the other side of the room. When he had let himself into the restaurant, joining the others, he still didn't see Edward. It didn't feel good. Everyone was mulling over their plates, only Sanji was standing, distributing the breakfast to the crew. The inn keeper and his daughter was also attending, seeing that there were many people and each and every one of them (even Nami and Robin ate a lot for normal people) were big, in Luffy's case, HUGE eaters.

"Where did the brat go?" he asked.

"He said something about going to see what happened to the old manor…" replied Robin. "He said he'd be right back." She went back to take a bite off her toast, silently chewing. The others were also quite awake, except for Luffy, and that was normal of him.

"I wanted to go too," sighed Luffy, "but he ran off before I managed to untangle myself from the bed sheets…" He picked up a whole loaf of bread, contemplating it with a slice of bacon in his other hand, as if mentally complaining that there was not enough meat in Amestrian breakfast.

"Un…tangle?" repeated Usopp, who was, until now, focusing on his own plate. "Do you mean… you showed your… power?" The faces of the rest of the crew had also turned to look at Luffy. In this 'world' where people didn't have much contact with the devil's fruit as much as in other islands, one couldn't know how the people would react.

"No, I got active when I slept," said Luffy. He put up his most innocent look, making everyone believe that he didn't know what they were talking about. Not that he did have any idea. He just liked to play dumb and watch other people revel in their own knowledge. It was fun.

Zoro contemplated the information gathered until then, and turned to the inn's owner. "Oi, do you know anywhere in this town that has a manor?" The inn keeper turned thoughtful, and said, "None that I can think of…" then, a young girl with light brown hair jumped out of her daddy's side and exclaimed, "I know! I know!! Brother Edward went to that Magwar manor!! Brothers Russell and Fletcher used to live there with Mister Magwar!! He used to be really, really bad, you know! Me and the others go there and pla-oops!" She stopped her overflow of information, and looked at her father, guiltily.

"How many times must I tell you not to go near there!!" exclaimed the inn keeper, his concern seeping out in his angry voice. He murmured to his child as he led her and the tray of empty plates into the kitchen. "That place hasn't been touched for years now! Nobody knows when it will collapse again and …"

Chopper was quiet for a moment after the two disappeared behind the kitchen door. "… You don't think Ed might have gone in… there, do you?"

* * *

Russell was walking down the dimly lit corridor of the Military HQ as the other military officials were retiring for the night. It was getting quite late, and he got lost while searching for the Fuhrer's office. He was also getting worried about his younger brother, Fletcher. Raking a hand through his blonde locks, he sighed.

The Fuhrer had asked for his advice on a particular subject in plant alchemy. His specialty. Russell grinned ear to ear as he turned a corner. He conveniently forgot that the Fuhrer might have called him because Edward was abroad, believing a personal victory against the Full Metal Alchemist.

His navy blue uniform, crispy clean, crumpled as it rubbed on his skin, with the occasional crinkling of the State Alchemist watch dangling from his pocket.

He thought about where they would stay for the night. Alphonse had told the brothers that they wouldn't have a room to spare that night because Winry, their childhood friend, was coming over. With that the younger brother was left at his dorm (Just like the Elric brothers used to do), to wait for the older one to come back. He turned a corner again, feeling like he'd been on the same path for the 4th time.

When he finally came to the Fuhrer's office door, he steadied himself to breathe calmly, to grasp the chance of becoming as respected a soldier as Edward was.

The Forest Maze Alchemist entered the office, and his vigour about his work soon dissipated as he saw a bloodied Fletcher.

* * *

AN. I'm sorry to anyone I may have angered! I didn't mean that I would REALLY stop updating for a month! Maybe for the next one... or not, if I decide not to write it... It's only at the 'idea' stage. ... I ramble. Tata!

mrawgirl09


	10. Chapter 10

_And his vigor about his work soon dissipated as he saw a bloodied Fletcher._

* * *

Ed wasn't thinking of actually going anywhere when he started to walk; he'd only been wanting some time away from his new acquaintances. His feet walked on their own, while Edward, being the genius he is, thought about the most recent alchemical discoveries and theories. When he did realize where his feet were leading him, though, he did not turn back. He did want to see what happened to that old mansion. Maybe it was re-built? Perhaps just demolished to the ground, taking all of the past fake philosopher's stones' experiments with it?

At that thought he frowned. At the time when the building collapsed he thought that the red water would just smother into the earth, returning to mother nature. However, during the time he had spent in the other side of the gate taught him about new materials, and the radiations these materials gave off. The red water already had some effects to peopel who had a whiff of the air near them, so there was a possibility that the area near the building was affected.

Edward changed his focus focus from the most recent results in combining automail and alchemy without tempering the nerves to the now heap of piled rock which he could see even from about half a mile away. As he paced his feet a bit faster, he did not notice a perculiarly violet-eyed hare stare at him, and run off towards the ruins before him as he passed the bushes at the side of the road.

* * *

When Ed stepped into what used to be the first floor of the collapsed building, he did not expect it to start crumbling. Nor did he expect for the rocks, thankfully not all of them, to tumble down in his direction. He did expect the rocks to be stained red at some point, as the manor used to hold the red water, but he most definitely did not expect them to react when he accidentally kicked a small, red stone. The stone had turned into a … mouse.

Now Ed was confused. Alchemy didn't allow stones, no matter how much they were soaked in red water, turn into living … well, apparently dead, animal. The components were totally different. He mulled enough courage to clap and touch the animal for a shock, only to his surprise, delight or dismay, the moment his fingers touched the rat, it opened its eyes, bit the finger poking him, and ran away. He decided to follow the rat, to see if the transmutation was a 'success'; if it was, then he would have to shut it down before people had 'illegal' ideas. He started after the rodent, through the tunnel of rocks, seemingly leading him to what used to be a basement.

He had followed the rat until it reached a corner, a dead end. It was weird, to say the least. It seemed like it knew something. There was nothing when he arrived at the dead end, not even the rat. He looked around the area, it seemed like it had been some kind of a dome before it collapsed. Then he saw a hand... a skinny, dried-off hand coming out of a huge slab of rock, underneath it showing a little pool of … dried blood.

Edward's heart started pounding immediately. What was happening? Why was there a corpse- no, a skeleton doing under a piece of rock?! He didn't have an answer. He didn't remember anything but the Tringham brothers and … the guy they used to work for. What was his name again? Aw hell, he was a bad guy; he didn't need to know what his name was.

Ed was trying to think of a plan on how to get him out from under the rock to bury him properly (at least he would have somewhere to be other than just rotting away in a collapsed basement-although it sounded appealing...that guy DID use those crystalized red stones at him and Al...) when hands grabbed onto his shoulders.

* * *

Luffy and his gangs had almost caught up with Edward, mostly worried about Edward and the probability of the building's collapse, while Luffy was dreaming up some kind of an adventure. When they reached the mansion, they saw only the glimpse of Edward's very red coat disappearing into the doors. He didn't close them, almost like inviting whoever was following. And of course, follow him they did.

When they got around the place, and finally found Edward, he was running after a rodent, deeper into the mansion. Luffy, intrigued, followed suit, his first mate right behind. Luffy thought it was fun playing ninja, and tailed him inconspicuously, or so he said. Zoro did not bother, and, surprisingly, Ed didn't notice.

When the path did come to an end, Luffy, being the prankster he was, randomly decided to shock a bit our favourite alchemist, sneaking up behind the blonde and suddenly gripping Ed's shoulders. He should have thought about the possible reaction of a well known military alchemist, Zoro mentally chided, as a blinding flash appeared from the alchemist's hands.

* * *

Russell picked himself up from the office floor. It was cold, and uncomfortable. It was also uncomfortable that his brother was staring with huge eyes at his mouth. Winry and Roy were securing a jar with a heart air-tight and with alchemy so that it may not be opened forcibly or without the pass code. It seemed to be a pig's, and was still beating in the red water, imitating the human's heart very clearly.

Winry, as Alphonse had said, was in Central. But what Al forgot to mention was that she liked to throw wrenches to friends. Or at least what he thought he was. She was wearing uncharacteristically black, from her black bandana to her black sandals. Her fingers fidgeted on the wrench, her eyes boring a hole in the ground.

Roy Mustang, the Fuhrer, thought Russell bitterly, was already picking up his black jacket to cover his black sleeveless shirt and pants. He didn't want to see Russell for his talent; he wanted other, more personal details. Roy's face was guarded, but the smell in the air gave away his guilt while Russell, with his new enhanced senses, could feel. He sighed. None of the people here were winners.

Roy Mustang left the office. Russell tried his best not to follow blindly as his nature told him to, and instead went to Fletcher, hugging him tightly and repeating apologies and promises.

After a few more steps, Lust turned back to him and greeted Gluttony by his name. Russell was brutally shoved to the back of his mind, as was Fletcher away from his brother, and Gluttony followed out of the office to his partner.

The humans were left wallowing about their loss in the back of their minds.

* * *

Alchemy flashed, temporarily blinding the swordsman, rubber man and the alchemist. Luffy and Zoro had closed their eyes during the transmutation, missing the glory of the process. Ed's right arm, now formed into his most famous short blade, was placed at Luffy's neck, while a huge lance was pointed at Zoro. By the time the eyes have gotten used to the darkness again, Edward removed the two weapons away from the 'intruders'.

"I thought I said I'd be back soon," muttered Ed, sounding slightly indignant.

"We wanted to know where you were going!!" piped Luffy, eager about something as always.

"Let's get out of here," said Edward, guiding them away from the crushed skeleton, in an attempt of escaping another story of his more… indignant escapades.

"What about him?" asked Zoro, pointing at the pile of bones. Too late.

"I don't know," said Ed, offhandedly. It wasn't a lie; he didn't remember who it was. But he wasn't about to let people force information out of him, "maybe it's one of the people from the village."

"Then we ought to give him a funeral," said Luffy, abruptly turning around towards the dead end. "How?" asked Edward, his discomfort not showing through his voice, but loud enough in his mind. "I can't use my alchemy; the whole thing will crumble down."

"But we can't let him be like this!!" said the pirate, pulling at the bony hand…which broke. "Ah." In the back, Ed, who secretly knew the man-not his name though- was freaking out by the turn of the situation.

After a small squabble over what to do with the skeleton, and the broken hand, it was decided to cover it up with earth. Luffy suggested putting up a memorial in front of the mansion, but Ed was against it, knowing it wouldn't be very welcomed by the town's people.

Zoro glared at the blonde, irritated by the fact that he wasn't telling needed information, but soon turned his eyes away to see a rodent with bright violet eyes staring at him... no, actually, it wasn't staring ar him. Zoro followed the line of viewof the rat as discreetly as possible, and found Edward in the end of the glare. Zoro frowned.

By the time the whole crew gathered up by the entrance of the mansion, and went away to the inn to get their bags and catch the next train to Central, Zoro had placed the odd memory into the back of his mind, half throwing away as useless thoughts.

* * *

Watching the group go further away from the mansion, the violet-eyed mouse turned into a greenish-black haired man, wearing black crop top, a short headband and fingerless gloves and shoes. At one side he had a small sac, full of the little red stones he'd been collecting.

"Fuck his luck, "said Envy, raking a hand through his green locks. "I guess he'd have to wait for now," and with that, Envy turned into a hawk and flew away towards Risembool. The Forest Maze Alchemist could wait. He needed to put Greed under control. Besides, it was easier to do the job further away beforehand.

* * *

Before leaving the inn, Ed checked in with the HQ while the rest of the group was watching a street performance. There was a person who was bouncing balls on top of his head while juggling 4… 5 objects in his hands, alternating between juggling in one hand and tossing them across, and his feet playing with a cat. Although the crew was not that fascinated by the act, the people were certainly fascinated by the pirates. The crowd, mostly women, came and came, mostly looking at Franky and his 'metallic' chin, Usopp and his long nose, Luffy with his weird clothing, Zoro and his three swords, Chopper and his awesome cuteness, and Sanji with his charms. There was a small group of people around him boring holes in his back, too. He had had the predatory stares before too, only, this town had much more women than men, and that made the people hungrier about men than women in Central… Shivering, Ed wished whoever was near the phone to pick it up fa-

"Fuhrer Mustang's office." – Breda? The office seemed like it was constantly changing people to pick up the phone now. _Maybe the next would be Fuery_, thought Edward idly. "Hey Breda, what's going on there?" said Edward.

"Hey, Boss! Nice to hear from ya! We're kind of busy right now-it's the last day of our work week- there are tons, I mean freaking TONS of paperwork that our beloved leader has bestowed upon us. I swear, if he didn't put that law about having miniskirts in the womens' uniforms department, I wouldn't even bother in the military!" Edward couldn't help himself but smirk at the last line. Roy Mustang DID do whatever he had promised his office crew before, and that miniskirt issue he did not drop. Even Hawkeye, although she never wore it, was obliged to have them. Edward turned his attention back to the man over the phone as Breda spoke again.

"So, is there anything that I should hear-and pass it on?"

* * *

AN: Thanks to Alch3mist for reviewing!! I added a bit to the first sections here so it would make more sense!! Does it flow okay? GOD I hope so, because this is one of the hardest part that I went through, and this was one of the parts that I had writer's block issue!! PLEASE tell me how it is!!

mrawgirl09


	11. Chapter 11

_"So, is there anything that I should hear-and pass it on?"_

* * *

The train ride was boring, like always. This time there was no story; Ed slept all the way from the beginning to the end of the train ride. Luffy, Chopper and Usopp, who all failed in their attempt in waking Ed, tried to doodle on Ed's face instead ('tried' meaning they failed, mainly due to the very threatening glare from Nami who didn't want an exploding chibi on their hands) before falling asleep themselves. Everybody was quiet, every one sleeping. At least that was until the train came to an abrupt stop. The jolt had pushed almost everyone to the floor, bumping and thrashing, waking the few who were in the drowsy compartment … except for Ed, who was still sleeping soundly. Yells broke out from here and there, and two people was bursting out of the front doors, effectively capturing the compartment. Ed still slept on.

* * *

Both people had pale complexions, unnaturally pale that some people might think them incapable of capturing a train. Both had their hair mostly hidden under a hat, but by the few left over strands of hair gave away the colour. One had a very black hair which half-covered his eyes and ears, while the other had a slightly blond to white hair, slicked back under another bandana in the cap, covering the eyes. The former wore a white shirt with sleeves rolled back, with black pants that seemed to be very form fitting. The latter had a black shirt with an open light brown jacket. The brown pants carried two more guns in its pockets. Both were wearing pristine white gloves. Strangely enough, both of them didn't look like some terrorists, but actually quite skilful businessmen.

Both men tried to evacuate the people away from the front car, shooting bullets into the ground, the ceiling and very near the heads of objecting men. The pirate crew were starting to get ready for fight, steadying themselves for the fight to come. The two people ignored the battle-ready pirate crew, and grabbed onto Edward. The one with black hair was shaking Edward, as if trying to wake him, while the blonde tried to get Luffy's gang away from the boy into the next car with the other hostages. Ed slept on, irritating both the pirate crew and the terrorists.

"Wake UP Already, Shrimp!!" yelled Franky and the black haired man, and Ed's eyes snapped up.

"I AM NOT THE SMALLEST FxxxING SHRIMP IN THE SEVEN BLOODY SEAS THAT USUALLY GETS MISTAKEN FOR A SxxxTY KRILL BY FRICKIN HUGE-SOME WHALES AS THEY TRY TO EAT IT BUT DOESN'T EVEN NOTICE IT GOING THROUGH THE OESOPHAGUS BECAUSE IT'S SO SMALL THAT IT HAS TO FIGHT THE SMALLEST OF THE TINIEST VIRUSES FOR LIFE BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO BIG FOR IT!!"

While everybody was recovering their burst eardrums from the agonizingly loud rant, Edward flew out of his seat, automail foot first, colliding with the nearest person in the vicinity: the Black haired terrorist. He fell to the ground, his hat surprisingly staying atop his head.

The blonde terrorist seemed to be very flustered, unsure what to do, and Zoro quickly used the back of his sword to knock him out. However, as an automatic reaction to the word 'short', Edward jumped onto the two terrorists, beating the shit out of them. When Ed was done with them, they were only masses of bloody pile of flesh that somehow retained human forms. After that, Edward groggily looked around the compartment, and saw that it was empty.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Edward, turning towards the rest of the gang, as the two people in front of him were not in condition to speak.

"You could've asked them before you beat the crap out of them," commented Nami dryly, "but I'm pretty sure this train's been hijacked…"

Edward then looked around them again. The train seemed to have stopped, but it still seemed like one of the oldest mission he'd been on. Technically not a real one, but still. This time, he decided to take the lower route, of going from compartments to compartments by the door. Not only he didn't have a two-metre high armour with him but his skills improved greatly to be able to withstand some terrorists by himself.

Without thinking of telling the others of what he thought, He strode off to the front part of the cart.

He didn't notice the panicked golden eyes from a small corner watching his moves, where silent pleas of stopping came from.

* * *

As the pirates tried to follow Ed, they noticed that the bloody piles in front of them started to move. The blood stains remained, but the humanoid shapes reconstructed themselves into more human shape, and started to crawl after where the Elric had left the scene, quickly gaining height as they crawled, got up and started to run. Before they got anywhere near the end, though, they were blocked by Zoro and Sanji.

The black haired man ripped off his bloodied white shirt, revealing a similar black shirt, very form fitting, as a strange symbol of white circles with a line connected the base of his neck down to his sides at the abdomen.

"Move." The word was short, strong, but menacing.

"As if," said Nami from the back, pulling out her Clima Tacts. Robin crossed her arms around her chest, readying herself for attacks. Zoro unsheathed his swords, putting Ichimonji in his mouth, Kitetsu and Shuusui in each of the other hands.

"We may have not been with the brat for more than a week or two, but we are not going to let some stranger hurt our friend," said Chopper, transforming into his human form.

The terrorist chuckled. "Stranger… eh? I don't have time for this." He stepped forward, towards the door, until when he turned abruptly towards a small corner and pulled out a teen, a golden-eyed, eyes brimming with tears, his dirty blonde hair swaying behind his back. He seemed to be scared out of his mind, as the man grabbed onto his arm, and tried to claw off the man's hand. He looked really similar to Edward. Too similar, with the identical black-clad clothes topped by a long coat, only that it was blue in colour.

The black-haired man pointed his index and middle fingers to the boy's shoulders, and the blonde man seemed to panic even more than the teen, blue eyes going wide. This man also seemed to be really similar to the teen in front of them, and the crew thought that the man and the teen were related.

"Let us go, or…" here the man … prolonged his nails?! …and pierced through the boy's shoulders, drawing a bloody scream from the boy. " … the boy gets another hole in his body, at his temple." With that, as if to emphasize his point, he pointed both his fingers at the boy's temple.

* * *

Envy smirked. Greed and Lust were supposed to get rid of the strangers in their territory, Gluttony was staying by Sloth in the compartment just before this, hidden among the human chimerae who couldn't speak, all clutching a weapon or two, munching away at the red water dusts that Envy gathered… As for Wrath… well, the brat could take care of himself. … As long as none of them were to see what the sin was going to do to their precious 'savior'.

Oh, Envy had a pretty good guess of what the other, new sins were thinking about, he wasn't blind. If they would survive the 'tortures' of being a homunculus, Chibi-san would come and save the friends. Pathetic, as Envy picked on his fingernails. Chibi san would not be able to alter the deal… because he would have a worse one weighing down on his shoulders.

When Dante was around, they had been offered a place in the Shichibukai… but the bitch had been too stubborn to choose, in Envy's perspective, the better choice, rather than becoming mere humans and destroying Amestris.

'BORING,' thought Envy.

Now the bitch was dead, and another place in the Shichibukai was open, Envy was thinking of spreading the ground for cultivating possible sacrifices for the philosopher's stones. The World Government would think of being able to control the Sins, and at this point Envy's smirk became a sinister grin, the Sins would strike from the back with amazing force…

… and the Pirates would be singing hooray for him when the World Government disappears from the face of the earth. Or the other way around. Which ever came first. The only thing Envy wanted was the source of creating philosopher's stone, and honestly he would care less if the world collapsed.

...

...

What was that Shorty taking so damn LONG?!

* * *

AN: Hope yous likes it. Oh, and THANKS to Alch3mist, as always, for reviewing this cxxx! (I didn't apologize this time!)

mrawgirl09


	12. Chapter 12

* * *

_What was that Shorty taking so damn LONG?!_

* * *

The boy screamed in agony as the crew was immobilized by the new ability. The now shredded white glove was tattered on the train's floor, revealing a pale hand, top covered in black, which was morphed into deadly points at the tip of his fingers.

"What the hell-"

"You bastards!! How could-"

"DOCTOR!! Wait that's me-"

"My goodness!!"

"GYAAAA He's a user!! His fingernail-"

"That's SO COOL!!" Luffy cried out loud among the ruckus that his crew had made while panicking. Everybody stilled. All of the people, including the terrorists and the hurt boy, sweat dropped. "I mean, it would be so cool if it didn't hurt that kid…"

"Damn this!" shouted Zoro, dashing towards the black man to slice up the black… spike from the boy's body, only to be stopped by the blonde man. Zoro sliced the body before him, waiting for the blood to splash out. Only the noise of metal colliding with metal came.

"What the fuck-" said Sanji, as the blond man slashed at Zoro with his now darkened hand. Zoro, caught off guard, was sent flying into the train's wall, cracking it. Blood spluttered out, clothes shredded to reveal the four slashes at the man's abdomen. The man redressed, wiping his face from Zoro's and his own blood. He had shortly cropped hair, with clear blue eyes cold without any emotion other than a hint of anguish. His face was anything but the usual killer's face.

"I'm sorry..." said the man, his face darkening. His skin turned darker and harder, as if some armour was forming over his skin, in little rectangular pieces accumulating. "We really need to catch up with Edward Elric…"

"Shit- Chopper! Get to the boy!!" yelled Sanji as he started off to kick the black man.

Luffy, out of his 'so cool' trance, jumped at the black haired man to pry him away from the boy in agony. Nami, started her process of making storm clouds to prepare for her thunder tempo, while Robin tried to use her ability (veinte ocho fleures! Clutch!) to get the boy out of the battle zone, the enemies didn't seem to have effect on the attacks, merely flinching at the unnatural twists of their bodies.

Chopper was jumping around in his deer form, trying to get past the slashes from the armoured-hand man and the random spikes that the other man was sending everywhere. Usopp was firing shuriken bullets, aiming carefully each shot so that he didn't hit any of the allies, while Franky was firing Coup De Vents with his left fingers

The fight has begun, and the reason of the misunderstanding was fighting through a compartment-full of human chimerae and two well-disguised homunculi towards the trap.

* * *

Edward passed through the front few cars with ease; every cart was full of who he thought as terrorists-as they were laden with guns-but his fighting skill and alchemy made the job as easy as digging a hole in a soft ground with a crane.

"Well, I guess this is the last one until I get to the main body…" muttered Edward, swishing his braid over his shoulder.

He approached a nearby window, thinking of applying the element of surprise. He swung outside, his metal hand firmly gripping the windowsill, as he managed to cling to the side of the train. He inched forward, approaching the other window to enter the scene. However, he didn't expect the hand that sprouted out suddenly and grabbed him by the shirt, throwing him into the compartment.

As soon as his body felt the ground, he rolled to a stop, narrowly escaping the spiked punches. This person was serious about killing.

"FUCK! Watch where you're throwing them spikes!!" shouted Edward, again rolling to avoid the next hit. He tried to glare at the face, but the continuous throws and hits and kicks towards his most lethal places in his body kept him from letting his point of focus static for more than half a second. But that was enough to identify who it was attacking.

"Envy." He spat out as he did as double body flip away from the sin. "Hijacking trains now? I thought you had more class than that."

Envy did not answer, and instead kept slashing and kicking with no hesitation or pause. Edward frowned, but kept on protecting himself, his limbs of steel blocking the blows. He didn't have time to make a transmutation, he barely had time to move his body accordingly to Envy's new, disoriented battle moves. The sin did not use a specific routine, which made it easier to block but unable to expect, and the fact that Envy turned both his arms into hideous spiked rods as well as his feet did not help Edward fight him off.

Envy didn't smirk. Envy didn't make snide comments. Envy didn't call him short. Edward wasn't sure this was Envy he was fighting.

"Hey transvestite!" Ed ventured. When he received no reaction he continued. "Palm tree! Green stuff! Androgynous! Pervert! Girlie! Nobody!"

As for the said sin, he was ignoring the insults throughoutly and concentrating only in killing the blonde. He did a triple slash followed by a kick in the shin. Edward backed off from the attacks until his back hit the compartment's wall, becoming more desperate to get any kind of reassurance that he could fight this sin off, even if that was only an insult towards him. Envy, his smirk finding its usual spot in the face, ran over to the man before him with the very deadly spike of an arm.

* * *

Luffy, bleeding from his side, was punching the pitch black man with a masked face with every skill his stretching body would allow in the small space. Zoro and Sanji, equally bloody, were dodging the slashing black swords from everywhere while slashing, kicking and punching the nails away to hit the main body and destroying the train car to gain more ground for fighting.

Robin had tried to hold off the two men, but their attacks of clutches and twists, which usually broke every single bone there was in a human body, didn't seem to harm the two.

Nami couldn't use the thunder tempo when she was using mirage for everyone. All the mirages were either ran through or slashed, notifying the image to be a fake. The men did not seem to faze when the thunder did hit them, burning them to a crisp, but soon they were standing and attacking again with even more force.

Usopp was firing his old irritating rotten eggs and elastic guns, because if he'd use his new phoenix bullets and fire bombs, the whole train would be burnt down, along with himself and the crew.

Chopper was constantly attacked by both sides of the enemy, and was having a hard time trying to aid the bleeding boy.

The blonde boy was sitting far in the back, clutching his right arm, watching the fight as it progressed on. His eyes were covered with his bangs, but the golden light shone through, while his mouth was murmuring something or another. Which Robin noticed and deduced a conclusion.

"That boy is one of them!" shouted Robin, alerting her friends. "He's muttering some sort of orders to the two!"

"Then he's the one we'd have to stop to get through," mused Chopper. "Everyone Cover for me!" yelled Chopper, as he bit on a rumble ball, changed form into the deer and leapt towards the boy. As if on cue, the black nails swished towards Chopper, followed by the black armoured man, who was moving in for the kill with his sharpened claws.

With about half of the claws gone towards Chopper, Zoro, Sanji and Franky were able to get closer to the black haired man enough to attack all at once. Luffy twisted his arms into vines, wrapping the black man and dragging away from Chopper. Robin used her power to again clutch the two men, who did not stop but deter a bit, to give the deer a spare second or two. Nami, as a precaution, made an image Chopper about 2 inches before the real object.

The black haired man was slashed in the abdomen, spraying the room with his blood, and the bleach-blonde's body crumpled backwards with Luffy's grasp's force and Robin's dislocation of joints. Both men were crumpled to heaps of bloody and distorted mass of flesh. Chopper, changing into strength-reinforced form, slammed into the mumbling boy, Hooves of Roseo.

With a sickening crack, the boy's chest collapsed, and fell down forward on his face. With him, the two other men collapsed down into bloody heaps, their bodies turning into something that looked like normal humans again.

* * *

AN: I'm so very sorry I couldn't update ... checks date .. yesterday. My laptop was virus-infected, and I can't get quickly enough to get to the editing and updating things to update... AND I can't really do anything with my laptop now because it's so slow and blah. I mean seriously. 20 minutes for turning on is slow, is it not? Or am I being too whiny? Anyways. because of that, I will not update tomorrow as well!! :D

I like torturing people. And I don't just do it to Ed either. :D :D :D evil cackle

Oh, and THANKS TO ALCH3MIST FOR TEH VERY FUN REVIEW!

mrawgirl09


	13. Chapter 13

* * *

Clang.

Edward did not ever think that he would love that sound. A huge silver wrench had embedded itself in the skull of the sin before him, and he had a good idea of where the tool came from. He turned his face from the sin on the floor, blood pouring out of the hole that the wrench had made, to the door where the person he dreaded to see, was standing.

"Winry!" yelled Edward, jumping over the sin, walked towards the girl in the black jump suit. She had started to sport black since some time ago, applying them from her normal clothes to her work suits. "What the hell were you thinking?! You could have killed yourse-!"

Edward couldn't finish the word, as his childhood friend's eyes got bigger, staring at something behind him, which he had a bad feeling coming off it.

As the morphed sword came down, Edward picked Winry up and jumped away from the sin's reach. Her body felt cold, unnaturally cold. Envy turned his head towards them, and noticing the girl in Ed's arms, he smirked.

"Well, Sloth, dear, why don't you break the news to your best friend here?" He sneered. Edward, confused, turned to Winry for an explanation. Winry, her face as cold as her skin, didn't reply. Envy's smirk widened to a sharp toothy grin as he talked again. "No? Well then. I'll tell him myself."

"What the hell are you talking about, Envy?!" yelled Edward, using his body as a shield as the sin approached he and Winry.

"I'm talking about a deal she and I made, O-Chibi chan." laughed Envy, smiling sickly sweet. He circled around the two so that they were between him and the compartment's door. "She and I made a deal," he repeated, "and her part of the deal was becoming one of us."

It took about a minute for Edward to fully grasp what Envy had said. When he did, he turned his horror/sorrowed face towards Winry and asked, quietly. "...Is it true?" His eyes were pleading an answer, the answer that all three of them knew was a lie, yet what the two friends wished was true.

Winry's face was dark, her crystal blue eyes betraying her face, showing guilt, sorrow and remorse mixed together. "… I'm sorry." With that, Winry ran out of the train car, slamming the door.

"Win-"

"She's sloth now."

* * *

"There's something seriously twisted is going around here," said Usopp, poking the cheek of the blonde boy they had just taken down.

"I agree," said Robin, while trying to comfort chopper of his trauma of killing a young boy.

"Then that means that Ed has just walked into fighting these things?" asked Nami, putting her hand to her mouth, biting her lips.

"Probably," replied Sanji, clutching his wounded arm so that the blood would stop.

Luffy, in the back, was already contemplating whether or not following Edward to help him. He looked back at his crew, thinking about everyone's wounds. Edward was a good friend who decided to help the crew even though they've met only for about a week or two, but in Luffy's mind the safety of his nakamas was first.

"Maybe we should go and help the guy," suggested the cyborg, flexing his metal fingers. "I mean, these kids have these superhuman abilities, they should be a handful for a kid like Ed." At this, Luffy's mind went blank as he automatically shouted, "Yeah!! Let's go help Ed!! And maybe we could get one of these guys to be in our crew!"

All of his friends stared at him, Nami immediately regaining senses and objecting to the idea as much as possible. The others just sighed; Luffy never seemed fazed, even at times like these. Luffy, however, had forgotten exactly why he considered the state of his nakamas. He wasn't hungry, and wasn't tired, although a bit bloodied, and that didn't make the list of why he shouldn't be walking into trouble- ahem- justifiable battle.

"Let's g-"

* * *

**SLAM**

_Phlrgh_

"LUFFY!!"

* * *

Winry didn't know why she ran out of the car like that, it didn't make any sense. She could have just explained the situation to Ed; she should have told him that she'd tell him afterwards. She should have stayed back, even though Sloth's orders were to go get Gluttony and the others in the back. Winry didn't want to go back. Russell got out of his seat when Winry slammed the door, but when Sloth grabbed his wrist and started pulling towards the back of the train towards the other new Sins, Gluttony grabbed the bag of red water stone dusts. He may be Russell, but he was still Gluttony and the sin didn't help the growing hunger, and the red stones only seemed to manage to satisfy Gluttony's hunger, although it was disgusting.

There was water in Winry's eyes, but Sloth's face was hard. Russell was worried about what happened during the meeting, but it was obvious that it didn't go well. Or as well as it should have.

Going through the wrecked train cars, the two trapped souls proceeded to the back, where Lust, Greed and Wrath should have finished.

When they reached the door, Sloth threw open the door with a slam, only to see Lust and Greed and Wrath's back, along with a black-haired boy with a straw hat collapsing to his knees. Lust's fingernail was going through the abdomen of the boy, piercing itself into the train's floor. Winry pushed Sloth back into her mind, screaming. "Roy!!"

Lust turned back to face Winry and scowled, at the name. He now had gotten rid of the white shirt Roy insisted on wearing atop his usual clothes, and only remained his tight black short- sleeved shirt with round holes in the shoulder blades. His arm bands on each hand were extended to form gloves, which again stretched to be the spikes.

"Envy told you to stay put during this mission, missy." mocked Greed. He was now taking off the shredded-to-shorts brown pants, which in turn revealed another long set of black pants which seemed to integrate with the body at the waist. "Leave the fight to us Sins, and you go play behind Sloth until this is over."

"Shove off, Greed," glared Winry. Turning to Lust, she said "I want to see M-" She didn't get to finish her sentence, as Wrath got up and covered her mouth with his bloodied hand. "Win… no…whoa…what happened to… did he…"

"You okay, kid?" asked Gluttony, eyeing the little rid that was poking out of Al's chest. Wrath took the broken rib out and handed to Gluttony. "I'm fine," said Alphonse, wincing in disgust as Gluttony crunched on his old rib. In the back of his head, Russell was imagining of throwing up.

"Luffy? Luffy?!" the sins turned towards the pirate crew, who were presently trying to revive Luffy to the world of the conscious. The boy seemed perfectly fine, except for the fact that his complexion was becoming dangerously pale. A kid with… hooves? … he was treating the wound with absolute concentration.

"What did you do to him?" asked Sloth, yawning. She could hear her host cursing at her in the back of her mind. How annoying.

"I pierced him when they thought we were dead." said Lust non-chalantly. "He's not, Roy butt in and aimed it a little away from the heart. I hit the stomach."

"Can I eat them?" asked Gluttony randomly, receiving everyone's stare. Lust was the first to open his mouth.

"No, Gluttony you cannot eat them." It was said almost as if it had been said million times.

* * *

AN: ... Hmm. 00:25. ... Am I too late? The ending here's lame, only because it's... like... part one... I'm putting up two today it seems... hmm. DANKE, Alch3mist!! I LOVE YOUR REVIEWS EVERYTIME!! uYAY FOR YOU!!

mrawgirl09


	14. Chapter 14

_"No, Gluttony you cannot eat them."_

* * *

Robin, amidst all of the commotion in the train, was watching the light conversation that the enemy was having. It seemed like an organization, and the way they called each different name … of primary sins.

The blonde one just now was Gluttony … and he seemed to like eating people. She was even watching it, albeit disgustingly, crunching on one of his ally's broken ribs. Another whitish blond was Greed, and seemed to be able to make skin-layered armour that no bullets, bombs, and even Zoro's sword cut through. The girl called the black-haired man Roy M-something, and that threw off her suspicions of having Sin's names. Maybe they were an alias? But then why bother using an alias if one was going to speak of the name freely anyway?

* * *

The guys with green, yellow, blue hair stood up. The guy with a weird nose too.

"How dare you, you … freaks try to kill Luffy …" the guy with the weird nose had a trembling voice. It sounded more like a coward's plea for mercy than an angry friend's voice. Alphonse winced behind Wrath as the bladed words hit his heart.

"You had better watch out, man!" the blue hair with sunglasses cracked his neck bones. "If you mess with one, you mess with all! If you mess with the captain,"

"… you're asking for a death bed." growled the green haired man. He put one of his swords in his mouth again, and held one sword in each of his hands.

"For once," said the yellow hair… with the weird eyebrow, "well said, idiot marimo."

Sloth couldn't help but release a snicker, the scene was funny, or should she say pitiful? Lust scowled, and turned to the angry people, readying his fingers for another extension. The unnoticed struggle between sins and hosts was tiresome, and the hosts shoved the intruders into the back of their minds. To the Straw Hat pirate crew, the whole scene seemed to mock them, as the people at the opposite side of the car readied themselves, and their faces shifting expressions from boredom to guilt.

"I really hoped they would listen to us when we asked sincerely." muttered Roy.

"I know… I hope Luffy-san doesn't die..." agreed Alfons.

"Winry… I don't think we'll be able to hold them off without harming them… much. Help?" Asked Alphonse, turning his face to Winry. The crew, although confused by the change of names, was still steadying themselves for battle.

"I could just open up the fake gate a-"

"Don't even finish that thought, Gluttony," cut in Winry, taking out her very deadly wrenches from the jumpsuit's pockets. "Actually, don't bother fighting, and get Russell. We've got it covered. We need them unharmed… mostly, not un-armed."

"Har-de-har, hilarious." said Russell sarcastically and walked away as he tried to force gluttony into the little box-to-be-left-unopened in his mind, so that he could participate in the battle himself.

Both parties of fighters were glaring at each other, getting ready for the mute signal for fight.

Someone snapped.

* * *

"Win-"

"She's Sloth, now."

Before Edward registered the situation, he had fallen on the floor, just like last time, on his back, the black pool of blood draining through the huge hole in his chest. He was loosing consciousness. Envy had changed the blade back into his arm, bloody with … well, blood. His blood. His mind was blank, and all he could think about was how he had to get to Winry, get her free from whatever deal it was, and set others, whoever got tricked by Envy … He didn't want to die again, not through the whole ordeal again, he-

Everything went black.

* * *

"That wasn't so bad," murmured Envy, watching the slowly cooling alchemist with sick, satisfactory smile. "Slower, though." Envy reached into his pocket at the hem of his skort, pulling out a leather bag that crinkled.

Tipping the bag onto his palm, he chose the biggest two stones among the pile of red stones, and threw them into the gaping hole in Edward's body. Usually the process of turning human into a homunculus would take an injection or the mélange of small amount of the philosopher's stone in the blood. But that process made the sin remember their past, their abilities were saved.

Envy couldn't, wouldn't let Chibi chan get the opportunity of keeping his past. He knew way too much to be comfortable, such as the array to weaken the homunculi, or the element needed to destroy it. Namely him.

As the familiar purple light flared on the body, giggles and laughter of little children filling up the room, Envy felt at home. When he came to from the drug trip, however, he was disappointed in not being able to see the rest.

The boy by his feet, however, moved.

"Hello, you must be Pride, I'm-"

"Envy." was the reply.

* * *

Envy was ecstatic. Now that the Chibi was more than mostly turned into one of theirs, there was no way he could be stopped. Only the Elrics and Mustang knew how to kill a homunculus, but he's had way too much red stones to calculate how much he'd need to die, and there weren't any remains left for him to weaken, because they've been turned to fossils after the centuries. Only the Full Metal Alchemist knew the array to make him throw up the philosopher's stones.

Right now they were heading towards where the rest were fighting, to introduce the new addition to the group. Pride. He wouldn't have a better pet; he was submissive, powerful and good looking. Envy wasn't going to yap about comparisons, not when he had the alchemist in his hands, under his control. That made him more handsome than some prick.

After this, they were heading to the pirate ship to sail to the world government's island. He had a log watch which he sto-hem-picked up from a marine some hundred-or-so-years ago.

Going through the unconscious-chimerae-filled car, Envy turned to Pride. He was following his new brother, his master, with blank face and equally blank eyes. Although his eyes betrayed a barely noticeable flicker of the old fire, Envy noticed the light and thought of how to break him.

His clothes were tattered and barely hanging onto the body frame and the big red splotch in the middle of his abdomen didn't cover the presence of the Ouroborus sigil. Without the automail, he looked very, very helpless. And molestable. And so bloody innocent.

Envy looked around the compartment, noticing that some of the human chimerae were regaining consciousness. He grinned evilly, but when he turned to face Pride, his face was blank.

"Well, Pride," said Envy, holding the door handle to the next car, "Why don't you clean up the bodies in here? It seems like some of them are waking up. We can't have that now can we?" Envy couldn't help himself and let out a smirk. "Wake them up, and then kill them."

Pride hesitated, the faint light in his eyes wavering. Envy's smirk widened. "Go on, do it." He got closer to the new sin. There seemed to be a slight struggle inside Edward's body, and after Pride muttered something that sounded like "-ck off, coward" and the light in his eyes vanished. Pride turned his now perfectly blank, yellow slitted eyes to Envy, who in turn moved away from the sin and towards the door, from where he could hear shouts which the sin probably thought of as the pirates. He scowled. The new sins were too soft for his taste, and they were getting rusty because of it.

Pride was moving the chimerae into one pile, putting the conscious ones underneath unconscious ones so that they won't be able to move away from their destruction. He approached Envy, turned around and faced the pile of bodies, and snapped. Envy, at that moment, chose to open the door.

AN:.. ... hmm.. I guess I don't have much to talk about here... hmm...

mrawgirl09


	15. Chapter 15

_Someone snapped._

* * *

On impulse, the Amestrians jumped backwards, except for Roy who was looking around for the real source, away from the threat they thought was aimed at the pirates. Luffy's crew, except for the unconscious captain, were confused by the sudden retreat of the enemies, of which their questions were answered as soon as they heard mutated cries from the cart before them.

More of them were surprised to see the flames coming from behind a young man behind the open door. The black-clad people looked aback not that there was a guy who started the fire but that the guy started a fire. Not to mention he was wearing a skirt.

"What the-" the crew backed away from the wall of flames, while the Sins controlled their expressions and turned back to return to their brother and master.

"What are you doing here Envy." asked-no, demanded- Roy Mustang darkly.

"You were taking so damn long eradicating them that I thought I'd drop by and lend a hand."

"WHAT!" Yelled Alphonse outraged. "You said we were to stop them from interrupting whatever discussion-!!"

"And you're interrupting me now, so it doesn't count," Said Envy, nonchalantly. "And I've changed my mind. They're going down."

"… Let's go," said Roy, turning away from the now very confused pirates to get past the sin of Envy. He backed off right away out of pure human instinct as he saw a snake curl around his wrist.

"I said, kill them, Lusty." the hand hissed, as the homunculus smirked.

"No." retorted Roy calmly, waiting for an outburst of some sort of violent tantrum from the sin. None came. He opened his eyes, not knowing when he had closed them, and saw Envy's smirk widen. There was a bad feeling about the smirk. Roy's eyes narrowed, as the sin of Envy shrugged and said "Suit yourself; I have a new toy anyways."

At that the new sins' stomach dropped. Their minds put two and two together, Envy's plan on Edward's meeting, and theirs with Envy, and their own plan on preventing that happening to Ed… and came up with…

"No..."

Envy smirked again for the umpteenth time in that day and came through the door. "Well everyone, meet our newest addition, Pride." He turned around so that his back faced the others, and beckoned the black figure facing away from them, towards the screaming charred humanoid figures in flames. He turned around.

It was the small blonde that both parties wanted to save, hair undone with his bangs covering his eyes, covered in black tatters and an ugly bloody red splotch in the middle of the chest.

"ED!"

* * *

The crew were throughoutly confused. Ed was on their side, but then changed sides and went to the enemy's?

But then why did that girl-Win, was it?-sound so … anguished? And… Pride?

Luffy was regaining consciousness when he heard the cry, and his eyes popped up, sitting up abruptly only to see everyone turned to the door, in which stood Ed.

A greenish-black haired man with a skort and Ed. Luffy ignored the weirdly dressed man for now and focused on the more familiar face that wasn't so familiar anymore. There was something wrong about his presence and he wasn't the blonde they knew until now.

Ed's clothes were tattered, soaked in blood which was hardening and shedding away from his skin. His upper half of the body was bare, showing the well-built muscles in his abdomen, with a red round tattoo, chest, and arms. His skin had turned into a sickly translucent pale, making him look like a ghost. His face was emotionless, his eyes blank. The golden orbs were turned into a glassy yellow, with barely a hint of his old flame in the unfamiliar slitted eyes.

"Ed..?" asked Nami, tentatively. Luffy didn't say anything, but merely glared at the human form.

"Edward … san…?" said the man with whitish blond hair.

"Fullmetal..." Lust called.

"Edward..." said the other man… who seemed to be called Gluttony.

"Brother…" said the dirty blonde.

Pride didn't react to any of those words, although Ed made more of a struggle when he heard his younger brother calling for him.

* * *

Every one of the sins, except Envy, was trying to ignore the glaring presence of the Ouroborus sigil at Ed's abdomen. Ed couldn't have lost. Even if he did, he would still have his soul, fighting for control in the mind. It was like two people strangling each other's throat, only the New Sins didn't know that Ed didn't have the strength, as when he was transformed, he was at the brink of the Gate, and the soul was going through a strong trauma. He was struggling, but he was losing. If he kept up, though, that would result badly. For both soul and parasite.

"Why don't you finish what your siblings started, and miserably failed to accomplish?" mocked Envy, slightly laying his hands on Pride's shoulders. Pride acted immediately.

He clapped, crouched down and before his hands touched the ground, he was stopped by the boy who called him 'brother'.

"Brother?!" yelled the boy, eyes brimming with tears. "What are you doing?!"

Envy rolled his eyes. "Oh please, you've been setting him up for me and now you act like a caring brother?" said he, conveniently forgetting that he was the one to order them away, and that he was the one who killed Ed to create Pride.

He ignored the evil looks he was receiving from both the new Sins and the pirates, and continued. "You guys didn't even come for him when he was killed." here Envy stole a glance at the horror-stricken face of Edward's friends. Hilarious. "… Anyways. Pride, everyone, Everyone, Pride."

Pride yanked his hands away from Alphonse's, and slammed them onto the train floor. Blue sparks went off, and from the shadows eyes opened, and from them leaped up figures towards the pirate crew; the actions that were happening then was so flurry that none, not even Envy, saw Pride's yellow eyes dim into a familiar molten gold.

Luffy would never forget the screams he had heard that day.

* * *

The alchemic reactions happened all too quickly. Luffy and his crew would have mostly appreciated the demonstration if it didn't hurt.

Blue light flashed uncontrollably towards everywhere. His legs hurt, and when he looked down, his bottom half was being chopped off with sharp-looking teeth chewing at his legs and millions of eyes laughing at him. Black shadows with eyes and a jagged-teethed mouth engulfed Luffy's nakama one by one, starting with Chopper. Luffy screamed when he saw Chopper's body, and his face disappear under what he thought was a mouth. Chopper had turned into his small form for an escape, but the shadow-mouth had bitten his sides before he could go anywhere. Blood sprayed. Just when he was about to punch at the mouth to let Chopper go, his eyes saw another splash of blood as Sanji and Zoro were eaten head first by the black thing. Nami was screaming for help as she was clinging for her life at the nearby train seat as the black bit on her legs, all the while watching Robin get attacked from the back. When Luffy was getting desperate about whom to help first, he was pushed aside by Usopp, who took the blow of an especially deadly looking teeth from the shadows. Franky was already left to his left hand, the rests engulfed in the darkness with eyes.

Winry was dodging and slashing the darkness with her mighty wrenches at the darkness that was shifting at the pirates, removing them away, far away with the inhuman power, ignoring the cold evil looks she was getting by the harmed eyes. The black haired man snapping, and surprisingly, fire came out of the tips of the fingers clicked together and made humongous fire, successfully burning the train's top off. However, when the shadows increased at the opposite side of the fire, he stopped clicking his fingers, instead using them to fight off parts that were going towards him. Greed was slashing at the eyes of the darkness, ineffective, but then jumped away as the black spikes tried to skewer him.

The other blonde boy was fighting also, still muttering near futures to his comrades. Gluttony didn't seem to use whatever power he had, but instead insisted on warding off the hands and spikes and - oh. He bit off the shadow. He was ripping parts of the shadows, and the more he ate, the more his eyes became insane with hunger.

Envy was nowhere to be seen. He was gone, gone to destroy the hearts of the betrayers. The sins' attacks at the shadows became erratic; shadows leapt up at the pirates all in one eye-full jump, and clamped down on their bodies. Everything went black.

* * *

AN: uhh...oh yeah! Thank you SO much for the reviews,Alch3mist and jenelric!! I loves woo very much!! /

mrawgirl09


	16. Chapter 16

_Everything went black._

* * *

This was bad. Envy found the new sins out about their rebellion and disappeared. That must not mean good. Their attacks became erratic, and the shadows started to swallow the pirates. When the shadows leapt up at the pirates, the new sins practically jumped at the remaining parts of the crew, pulling at the remaining nothings so that they wouldn't disappear.

The whole world became black, as the shadows covered everyone, but did nothing but stare at the people within. The eyes closed off, the mouths closed, and there was optimal silence for a long time. When the shadows did dissipate, the afternoon light that showered on the train was gone, leaving only darkness with little light that was coming from a village nearby.

Pride was gone.

* * *

"You done with them?" asked Envy, while striding over to the other side of the deserted city. The underground city may be abandoned, but power still worked throughout it, and it was easy just flicking on the switch at the side of the wall for light. Pride was crouching on his knees, hands on the floor, breathing hard.

The brat must still not cooperate, thought Envy, while turning his head towards the jarred hearts in the middle of the old transmutation circle, in a pentagon shape. The new sins may be troublesome, but he still needed them and their skills, otherwise what good had it been to not kill them in the first place? What good had it been to make a deal with the hearts?

Where the fucking hell were they?

* * *

In a forest near the village somewhere, there was a small camp fire, placed somewhere barely noticeable by the people who passed.

Sitting around the fire, Chopper was busy running around the crew, cleaning and bandaging as much wound as he could. Sanji had a broken leg, Zoro a broken arm, Chopper a hit to the stomach, Nami her two legs and Robin her two arms slashed, while Usopp had his neck back bitten off. Franky was stabbed in the back with a spike, and Luffy had a huge gash going around his waist like a belt of red blood and flesh.

"You have surprisingly small wounds for being sucked in Pride's shadows… " said the black haired man. "The last pride had sent 4 people limb-less after a trip into the shadows, I heard."(1)

"Lucky, I guess." said Luffy, enthusiastically with a goofy smile. "My name's Luffy. Yours?"

"… Mustang." said the black haired man.

"… and your sin?" asked Robin, as sharp and perceptive as ever.

"… Lust." spat Mustang, and turned his eyes away. It felt very annoyingly ironic that he became the sin he killed years ago.(2)

"My name is Alphonse, Wrath..." said the dirty blonde, seeing the discomfort of his friend. "I'm Ed's … bro...ther, if you could still call me that… after all that I did to him..."

"Why not?" asked Chopper, being careful about how to behave towards the one whom he had 'killed' hours before.

"We… I … I abandoned him with …. Envy…" Alphonse's voice was miserable and Chopper instantly regretted ever asking. Al's voice turned to sobs. "He… he killed… I help-sob-helped kill brother… sob..."

"It wasn't your fault, Al..." said Winry, patting his back. "We didn't know what he'd do..."

"We should have!!" yelled Mustang suddenly, surprising everyone. "We've been through the same things ourselves and we knew how Envy hates E-Full Metal… I become Fuhrer and I can't even protect myself or my subordinates safe… damn this."

"…" Heidereich shifted uncomfortably at his seat. "Um… Alfonse Heidereich, ma'am, Greed."

"Russell, Gluttony." said Russell, quickly as he turned to look at the village for the fifth time after they've settled in for camping.

"You can go, you know. We are not so helpless without you," said Winry, quietly as she comforted Alphonse. "Fletcher must be worried."

Without another word, Russell jumped up, and ran towards the village, determined to arrive at his house before dawn.

"Where is he going?" asked Sanji.

"To his brother." said Winry, and left it at that. She then smiled, and said:

"Winry, Sloth, Ed's mechanic and if you cross me you'll have a wrench implanted in your brain."

* * *

After the new sin's story of their deal with the devil, Luffy, Usopp, chopper and Franky were crying their eyes out while Franky made up another crappy song titled "Stolen heart, literal version. This song is for you, Sins..."

Behind him was Chopper, Luffy and Usopp waving both their hands up in the air for the mood, all equally crying.

"So, anyways," interrupted Nami before the song became sobs, "what you mean is that you need to know where Envy keeps his stash of hearts?"

"Yes," replied Mustang. "We do not know where he put the hearts and although Alphonse and I had two animal hearts to replace the ones in Tringham's and Heidereich's organ of Envy's choice, Alphonse, Miss Rockbell and I still have our hearts kept at his grasp."

The crew, except for Robin, Sanji, Zoro and Nami, looked at Mustang with confusion. Lust, irritated by his host's attitude, launched itself forward, taking control of the body himself.

"What he's trying to tell you is that only Heidereich and Russell have their own heart, and the rest have theirs stolen. I'm sorry about the weird words, he doesn't usually do that." said Lust, taking over Roy's mouth.

The crew were dumbfounded at the sudden change of speech, and Mustang sighed.

"Well, that… was Lust."

"So… you go through some sort of character change… right?" asked Usopp, fidgeting with his fingers.

"Yeah..." muttered Alphonse, wiping his tears off his eyes. "Only… Brother doesn't…. Because he died before he was turned into a Homunculus..."

Heavy silence settled in the small space around the fire. Zoro opened his mouth since a very long time.

"… Do you know where they are, the hearts?"

"… No, not yet. Alphonse was using his eye to check every building in the continent, yet Wrath doesn't cooperate much, and Alphonse hasn't been able to check the whole country..." said Mustang, "but the central city is throughoutly checked, and the only place Al didn't check yet is the hidden city."

"Hidden City?" asked Luffy, his eyes sparkling. "Hidden City…. It sounds like an Adventure!!" The crew were again, annoyed by the horrible attraction for adventures of unknown places of their Captain.

Mustang chuckled darkly, "You should never go there if possible. It's a horrible place." This only fired Luffy's interest.

"Uhuh… I shouldn't go there… I shouldn't go there no matter what…" he muttered, smiling like a fool while Sanji and Usopp tried to snap him out of it.

Alphonse was sombre. He didn't check the underground city yet because it was a whole other city to see, under the city of central. If he looked at both cities at the same time, it would be very confusing for him, which would waste their times. Without a word, he got into his usual routine of searching for the three lost hearts. He closed his eyes, and evened his breathing, to concentrate on seeing underground.

Mustang glanced at Alphonse, and turned to the people in front of them. "Who are you, anyways?"

"You tried to kill us and you don't even know who we are?" asked Nami, incredulous.

"When you're a military dog, you learn to do things without asking," replied Mustang.

"Luffy," started Nami, pointing at said boy. "Zoro, Sanji, Franky, Chopper, Robin and Nami." lastly she pointed at herself.

"Enchanté," said Mustang, suddenly standing up. "Well, I'll be looking for something to eat for the ladies. Men, you're on your own."

"Yes, sir!" said Heidereich enthusiastically, and Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp each parroted what the sin said for fun. Sanji, Zoro and Franky all grumbled, all three of them not so used to being ordered around much, but went away anyways, looking for something fit for their stomachs. Alphonse did not notice them leaving, still searching the hidden city for their hearts.

* * *

AN: Uhh... there's a lot of mixups here...

1. I think I meant the Selim Bradley, and I mean the four people from the North HQ going in the tunnel for investigation... I don't think they all got amputated... But I remember seeing a leg. hmm...

2. Yeah... This one kinda follows the manga. Sorry for people who didn't read it yet, but Roy Mustang kills Lust. Won't say much about how, tho.

... Overall, I'm NOT happy about this chapter. Oh well.

THANK YOU JENELRIC AND ALCH3MIST!! u LOVES FOR THE REVIEWS!!

mrawgirl09


	17. Chapter 17

_Alphonse did not notice them leaving, still searching the hidden city for their hearts._

* * *

After about 40 rabbits, 2 deers and 3 boars, the group was finally happily tucked around the fire. Alphonse still had his eyes closed, brows shining a bit with sweat.

"Is he okay?" asked Usopp, picking his teeth. "He's been at that for about 4 hours now…"

"He should be fine, he knows to stop when to stop," Said Winry, picking at the fire.

"Is this okay?" asked Sanji.

"What is?" replied Mustang, turning his eyes from the fire to look at the cook.

"You were supposed to kill us, and right now you're going against Envy's orders," said Luffy.

"We've just been found out that we've been planning a coup d'état against him, what do you think he will do to us?" Growled Mustang, clicking his fingers again at the dying flames.

"So…now what?" asked Chopper.

"Now we wait," said Mustang, his eyes covered with bangs. "Until Alphonse wakes up from his search. We can't do anything until then. Or do you have something else in mind?"

"…" The group fell into an uncomfortable silence as they watched Alphonse, hoping for any kind of response from the boy.

* * *

Pride was sitting at the edge of a roof of a house in the underground city. Envy was drawing a transmutation circle for him to use on the new sins to destroy the souls of their hosts, but letting the sins to take their memories and their knowledge. Envy didn't let Pride near the hearts, because he said that Pride was not yet the wholly dominant one of the body. He was to subdue the alchemist by locking him into the broken heart, preferably killing him.

Pride sighed, and lay down on his back. Edward was not retaliating, and Pride did not know what Edward was thinking, and silence did not mean good; lat time Edward was silenced he almost for himself killed. He knew that he came out at the last second at the train incident, to weaken the shadows' blows into mere scratches, and he hadn't been able to see or hear him since in his mind. That was unacceptable. Pride felt his presence but could not do anything for he couldn't sense the alchemist anywhere in his mind…

Pride sighed. The thoughts made him exhausted. But he couldn't sleep. Homunculi don't sleep. Homunculi don't eat, with the exception of Gluttony. Especially unfinished ones. The satisfaction or the brief relief would give the chance to the host for dominance again. He would wait.

… And there he was, in the back of his mind; Edward's soul was unconscious, a similar situation where the body goes into a coma. Now Pride only had to prevent the Alchemist from ever coming out from the little hole in the middle of his heart.

Envy was calling.

* * *

"It was in the hidden city all along…" said Alphonse suddenly, startling everyone who was drifting off to their dream lands. Luffy and Chopper were already sleeping soundly, while Heidereich and Usopp were just about nodding off.

Russell had returned from evacuating Fletcher to a hideout-more like a tree house at ground level hidden by forests-which he, Al, Fletcher, and Ed made together so that their brothers would be able to play up to 5 days non-stop. Neither of the brothers has used the house less than 8 times a year, and so it was always packed with food that could feed Roy's main crew for 10 days.

Mustang stood up, eyes hardening. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go."

None disagreed.

* * *

The array was ready, and the placements of the hearts were correct, as he found in the old Alchemic books. Now he needed the brat to get the array working so that the other bastards would let the homunculi take care of the then deceased bodies. Although he knew that the others would try to sabotage his plans, he didn't expect them to react-no-escape his grip so quickly. He was about to let the humans live a bit longer for their abilities, but the risk was getting higher and he couldn't afford to screw this up. On a brighter note, he'd found some notes on creating a homunculus without the soul, with still retaining the memories but no feelings. He'd still have uses for the humans after all.

Pride was waiting for his orders at the edge of the circle, Envy was quadruple-checking that he had placed the hearts in their right places and set the lines correctly, in their correct shapes, correct angles, and exact dimensions. It did look a bit like a human transmutation circle with a homunculus' insignia dominating it, along with a small reference to making a theoretical perfect philosopher's stone.

Envy turned to Pride. He was standing still with blank eyes devoid of any flames of life whatsoever. That was the usual, until they would find something which they enjoy as homunculi, just as he got his flames in his violet eyes when he first imitated a dead person, only to show it to those who were left behind and killing them in that form.

"Who are you?" asked Envy, glaring at the blank eye.

"Pride, you brother, and Edward Elric does not exist." _Not now, anyways_, added Pride in his mind. It wasn't a lie, as the Elric was as good as dead when trapped in a body, soul in a state of possible coma, and still being pressured very strongly by the parasite to stay down.

Envy seemed only just satisfied with the answer, and pointed at the circle. "Go get your brothers and sister back permanently." Said Envy.

Pride blinked, and blinked. He made his way towards the circle, slowly as he took in the shape of the circles, squares, triangles, thick and thin lines and … a dragon, circling the whole pattern. He clapped, and put his hands down to the floor.

* * *

"Follow us carefully," said Mustang, "Only I, Alphonse, Heidereich and Full Metal know the way to the hidden city."

The group was running full speed towards the entrance of the old city underneath Central.

When they reached the entrance of the city, Roy bombarded open the entrance, ignoring the cries of shushes from the other party. He knew that no man could hear them, above the ground, from several hundreds of feet down under the surface.

Alphonse quickly drew the hidden array, while Mustang got rid of every obstacle. Russell and Alfonse were in charge of the ladies, to which notion Winry ignored and bolted after the two men at the front.

The pirates were looking around with wide eyes, marveling on how humans could build a whole city under the ground. The only thing that didn't make sense was that it was quiet. Too quiet. There weren't any noise whatsoever from anywhere, and the silence was breaking the crew as they slowly realized that the city may be dead. Luffy started to regret asking to come at the place in the first place. Suddenly the guides stopped. Alphonse keeled over, as did Winry and Mustang. They all clawed at their empty shells of chests, trying to push a hole into their chests.

"Go… before it's too…" panted Mustang, before he went to another jolt of pain.

After a while, the jolts did not come anymore, and the three recovered soon.

"What was that?" asked Chopper, eyes going wide. "Heart attack? DOCTOR!! Wait, that's me…"

"No…. no really. thanks." Said Alphonse, still panting slightly.

"What are they doing?!" angrily whispered Winry, as she was hoisted up by Sanji from the floor, where she unconsciously dropped.

"Something that only affects us, obviously, idiotic girl." Said Alphonse, and as soon as he said it, his eyes went wide. Everybody's face was also getting the surprised looks; Alphonse did not just talk to them like that.

"Whoa… Awesome! Hey Sloth!"

With that one line, Winry, Mustang, Heidereich and Russell knew what was happening. Whatever that pain was, it was blocking the host's block, prying out the once trapped sins.

"Alphonse…" said Nami; none of the pirate crew understood the abrupt change yet.

"Damn… That shock must have triggered something…" breathed Mustang, feeling Lust take over.

"… I don't like this…" muttered Sloth sleepily. She turned around, towards the pirates, but saw beyond them, as if seeing through the bodies and the abandoned buildings.

"What… just happened…?" asked Usopp, speaking up for the very confused crew.

"I… believe… it's starting," gasped Mustang, trying to push away the invading sin.

"Envy… is doing… making Edward-san do something with out hearts…" said Alfonse, thinking of a way to help. "We don't have effect because we… didn't get our hearts taken… Russell-san's and mine hearts were replaced by pigs'…"

The three other sins continued their internal battle for control.

"… I believe we'd have to hurry to where the hearts are," remarked Robin.

"…That won't be necessary anymore." Said Lust, dusting himself off imaginary dirt.

"What?!" The crew were flabbergasted. They had all run down to this place with the Amestrians, and now they didn't want to go?

"We're in control now," said Wrath, until he was silenced by Alphonse, regaining control. "No fair."

"Yes," gasped Mustang, just barely managing to keep the Sin at bay, "We should."

The group returned to running towards the center of the city. Whatever Envy was planning to do with the hearts it must have been an alchemic

They didn't get far when they heard cries. It wasn't Edward's.

* * *

AN: I'm Sorry for the lateness! MY laptop broke down, and My brother won't let me use his!!

Thank you Alch3mist for the review!! I'm sorry if the last chapter was too confusing! But it was supposed to be like that!

mrawgirl09


	18. Chapter 18

_They didn't get far when they heard cries. It wasn't Edward's._

* * *

"Why the hell isn't this working?!" Yelled Envy. Pride had tried on the transmutation twice already, and he was doing it mechanically again. Irritated, Envy hit Pride's head on the side, throwing him into the middle of the array. "You're doing something wrong, you idiot!"

Pride didn't react. He shuffled himself onto the center of the array, in which it was conspicuously absent of any alchemical array. Being on the array hurt. The array was wrong, or so Edward said. Edward Elric was slowly getting back to resisting weakly, and he would need to push him back again while doing his work. Envy wouldn't like it if he showed that Edward was struggling again.

"Do it again!" seeing Pride in the middle of the array, and getting another idea of possible transmutation. "Do it from the middle this time!!"

Pride complied, clapping his hands and lowering them down to the ground, although he was reluctant to actually touch the array.

Envy was irritated, annoyed, and absolutely furious. Irritated because the array wasn't working, annoyed because of his own stupidity (not that he would admit it out loud) of not learning Alchemy when he was alive-not being able to just shove the useless brat away from the array and do it himself-and furious because his plans always seemed to go awry with that brat somehow involved in someway.

"It.. . it won't work, Envy…" whispered Pride, low enough to be barely heard, even for Envy.

"What?" Growled the said sin.

"It… it won't… work…. Th… the hearts … the bodies… I don't understand." Mumbled Pride, hand unconsciously heading for his temples. Edward was fighting back. "Damn… the Elric… won't… tell me."

"…" Envy's eyes glowed dangerously. "I thought I told you to get rid of that brat."

"I did," lied Pride, "The memories won't open up to me." This one was not a complete lie, as Edward was blocking him, very weakly but effectively enough, from the information needed to trigger, or alter, as the soul said, the array.

"Damn that idiotic shrimp!!" Yelled Envy, as he turned around and walked away from the useless sin. Then he stopped.

He heard footsteps. Quite a lot at that. Envy scowled. Probably the stupid pirates and damn Amestrians who simply would not die. The idiots didn't even bother masking their footsteps. Envy glided into the shadows, waiting for the chance to strike whomever he saw fit to kill first.

* * *

When the crew arrived at the city's square, they had half expected the two sins to attack at first view. They saw a huge circle, which Mustang had identified as the array for alchemy, and Edward was sitting in the middle, hands at his head, cradling it and whispering something to himself. Envy was nowhere to be seen, and people tensed, waiting for the sin to reveal himself. All except Luffy, who believed from his experience in fighting that Envy wouldn't come out unless he saw a chance, and walked over to Edward in the middle of the array. Before he got to the circle, however, he was tackled off his feet by a … leopard. He quickly got up, jumping away from another pounce of the animal.

"Gomu-gomu-no-" Luffy drew his fist right back, stretching his arm backwards, ignoring the surprised shouts from the Amestrians. " Pistol!!"

His hand hit squarely on the leopard, or would have, if it didn't disappear. The next second, another figure morphed from the floor, changing into Envy, with a blade instead of his right arm, similar to what Luffy and Zoro have seen a few days ago.

"You all irritate me for the last time!" yelled Envy as he threw himself towards the captain, shouting: "Activate the array again!"

Pride, automatically, slammed his hands onto the array, ignoring the uncomforting feeling that was spreading from and to, his hands. His mind switched to auto-pilot, which was not really effective seeing as Edward was very weak and barely able to resist the sin. His eyes returned with the flare of life, albeit very small. Edward activated the array, knowing that it would only give temporary control to Wrath, Sloth and Lust, and worked on altering the array to execute his vengeance of death and entrapment in his own body. Pride unconsciously began to draw his power of shadows onto everything he could feel.

Sloth, Wrath and Lust had returned again briefly, turning towards the pirate crew and Russell and Alfonse, drawing their weapons out.

"They're turning against us!"yelled Usopp.

"No shit, Sherlock," growled Russell as he worked his jaw.

"Usopp!" yelled Zoro as he drew his swords to help Sanji, who was battling Envy, and surprisingly, was inclining to lose. "Get Edward out of that array!"

"Why meee!!" whined Usopp, but complied. He knew that if he reclined the order, he would have to fight among the monsters. He started running towards the man in the array, when Wrath stepped in front of him, punching Usopp in the face. "I don't want to go back into _that,_" said Wrath. "It's way too dark and small."

Chopper dived in to assist Usopp, only to be stopped by Sloth, throwing Chopper into the air, 50 feet away from the destinated person.

Chopper transformed into his human form, getting up quickly as he dodged a blow at the head by a spurge of water. "Whoah!! You're water?!"

"What do you expect from people who have fingernails that cut through walls and eat them?" asked Sloth, ignoring the glares she received from both Lust and Gluttony.

"And that guy over there is a transformer?" asked Chopper, as he initiated his own series of attacks.

"Shape-shifter, more like." Replied Sloth as she blocked the hooves with a wall of water.

* * *

Envy had transformed into Fletcher while fighting with Russell, and changed into Noah when he met Alfonse. He couldn't transform into what the pirates loved because he didn't know who they were or what they looked like. Lust was fighting off Zoro, Sanji and Franky at the same time, reconstructing the scene similar to that from the train. Nami and Robin were moving towards the forgotten figure in the middle of the array. Edward was still placing his hands on the circle, his eyes focused on something that they couldn't see. The lines in the array were more complicated, and more and more shapes appeared inside the circle.

"Make him take his hands off the circle," said Nami, "so that I can get him out of that… thing." She finished lamely. She didn't know much about alchemy, and she didn't like it up till now, and she sure as hell wasn't about to see what would happen to her if she'd stepped into a triggered array.

"Sien Fleur" said Robin, triggering her power onto Edward's arms. Six arms sprouted on his two arms; two of the sprouted arms held onto Edward's hands, pulling them towards the upper arm, while the four others pulled the upper arm towards Edward's body. It had no effect. Edward didn't take his hands off the floor, but shadows with eyes and a mouth spurted out of the floor outside the array, enveloping the two ladies. Robin didn't let go, even as her arms were twisted unnaturally and the eyes in blackness invaded her vision, and even when the teeth in the shadows bit on her legs.

Nami screamed as her hand, holding the weather controller, was bitten down. The horror from the train was starting again. This time, Edward was not holding down on his powers. "Luffy!!"

Luffy heard his name being called, and looked away from Wrath attacking Usopp to dodge Envy's blow, and saw Robin reduced to a black blob on the floor and Nami following suit.

"Damnit!" shouted Luffy, and threw away the Homunculus, running towards them. He felt a sharp pain in his legs, and when he looked down, his legs were chewed upon by the many-eyed shadow. "Argh!" Wrath stopped attacking him, and was watching with a sneer.

The shadows were spreading towards others, too. Zoro was collaborating with Sanji and Franky to disable Lust's parasiting body, when all three were gobbled up by the eyed blackness. Zoro tried cutting through the visible parts, such as the eyes or the teeth, but it didn't harm the shadows. Sanji tried flambé -ing them, and it didn't work. Franky had the tools and the brain to chase away the shadows with a flash bang, but before he could get it out of his compartments in his arms, he was swallowed whole by the grinning darkness.

Usopp, who were fighting with his life with Wrath, had the sin at point blank with his hand, equipped with Impact, when it was watching Luffy dissolve into the blackness.

"Tell him to stop," said Usopp, trying to get rid of the trembling his voice, "and release my nakama."

Wrath turned around, and laughed evilly as Usopp's face was covered with equal evil darkness, grinning. Before Usopp could press the button for the Impact, his hand was covered with the eyes.

Chopper was in the form that enforced his jumping skills, trying to evade the following whips of black, jumping towards him from every where. However, the effect of the rumble ball was fading very quickly, and when he returned to his smaller form, the black vines wrapped his form instantly.

AN: Eheheh... I think I might be getting a bit lazy with the updates... feh. I'll really have to do something about that. Thankfully it ends soon... THANKS TO ALCH3MIST (AGAIN ;) ) FOR THE REVIEW!!

mrawgirl09


	19. Chapter 19

* * *

Luffy, the only one who could stretch his body enough so that he wouldn't be eaten alive so quickly, saw from his elongated position wrapping around a nearby building that his crew was not the only one suffering from the biting darkness.

The Sins were screaming too. Envy the most. They were all covered in black vines that looked similar to theirs, only that the ones around the Sins didn't have any facial features. Luffy turned to face the offender, Pride. His eyes were shining with a sliver of light in them, brows furrowed with concentration. The circle on the floor was expanding, the lines folding themselves outward like a flower opening its bud.

* * *

Envy was betrayed by his own creation, which he thought could never think for himself. As soon as he saw the pirates disappear from view, Envy turned to take on the murderous looks by the rest of the new Sins, namely Russell Tringham and Alfonse Heidereich, with a smirk, when an array which only Roy, Al and Envy recognized as to weaken Homunculi to an extent, appeared under their feet. However, the array was altered in some ways, some lines added and some removed, to make it even stronger. Every sin started to choke, including Pride. Russell spewed a sick, glowing red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood. The red goo turned into sizzling nothing as Russell drew himself up to his full height, and glared at the screaming Envy. He clapped; using the small knowledge he gained from seeing the Gate, and slammed onto the ground, holding Envy with vines so that the sin couldn't run away from the transmutation.

"Fuck! What the hell do you think you're doing!!" yelled Envy in his deformed voice, trying to transform into an animal to escape the vines, and failing miserably. His share of red stones was literally layered away from his skin in piles of red rubbles.

Roy's chest exploded, instantly healing as the red liquid pouring out Lust onto the floor only to disappear from the power of the array. Roy snapped his bare fingers, sending the trapped sin into a blue blazing heap of fire. It was interesting, in the least; to see blue flames burning from what only seemed to be air.

Winry, seeing and feeling the sins being pushed out of their hosts, was quick to follow them, managing to slit her left wrist with her fingernails, letting the Sloth in her loose onto the array. The sin, now without a body to hold it and no stone to let it regenerate, dissolved into the array, leaving a blood stain along with the other two. She took out a saw from her outfit's pocket, a tool she never used unless on a tool, and swung it with deadly aim at the sin of Envy. Blood still seemed to be able to come out of the charred remains, and a copious amount of it, although he still healed.

Alphonse too spewed Wrath out of his system and let his own anger out at the slowly healing sin. Now the burnt, bloody homunculus had a cannon-ball sized hole in it.

"Sometimes, you're as reckless as your brother." said Winry, watching Greed pour out from Alfonse's mouth. Like the others, Greed was instantly destroyed to the Gate. Heidereich, no longer needing to draw an array that he's had a glimpse of the Truth at the Gate, clapped and threw his hands onto the mess, turning Envy, or what used to be it, into a pile of dust and a red glowing liquid pool. The red liquid dissolved into the floor, and the ashes were blown away by the alchemical reaction wind, and Envy was gone.

Edward, who was dazedly watching the whole thing from start to the end, hacked, and released Luffy's crew from the power's grip. As soon as he did, Pride flooded from his mouth, onto the floor, disappearing slowly. Edward's eyes dimmed further, and the little fire he had in his eyes disappeared fully, leaving only a pool of a hollow yellow instead of the golden fiery spirit. The Amestrians were at Ed's side as soon as they heard the dry cough, encircling him as if on his death bed, clinging onto his body as if it would hold his disappearing soul.

Luffy turned to his friends, who, although the much blood spilt, were in a pretty good shape, their wounds already clotting. Chopper, being the dutiful doctor busied himself with the crew's wounds, at the moment Nami's. Franky didn't have any blood on him, and was helping to move his other nakamas into a more comfortable position. Robin moved towards the other group, wincing at her broken arms.

"Haaah… You … owe.. me…. … bastards…." breathed Edward, eyes dilating from pain, "Don't… cr..y Wi-"

Winry didn't hear his words, as she was pouring tears from her eyes onto Ed's still pale face. Ed stopped in mid-word, and his eyes closed as he drifted off to nothingness-

"NOO! Don't die!! You can't die!"

"Brother!! You can't die!! Promise me you won't die!"

"He won't. He's not dying." interrupted Chopper, instantly at Ed's side, examining his body. "He doesn't seem to have any injuries… his pulse is normal. He just seems to be asleep, but-"

Everyone seemed to be relaxing a bit from the information, until they heard the next few words.

"-don't expect him to wake up anytime soon… he's in a coma…" continued Chopper, head declined to avoid the fearful glances of the people he didn't know "I don't… feel Edward. He smells… empty." he was staring at his hooves at his feet, trying his best to hold his tears back in his eyes. Nami and Winry clapped their hands onto their mouths. The men did not move. Their faces were dark and devoid of all emotions except pain and sadness, some anger. Alphonse broke down, tears falling freely down his cheeks, as he came closer to Edward's limp body, cradling his head. Heidereich and Winry moved in to console the boy, sharing their grief.

Words never really hurt the people at the scene more than it did there and then.

"Edward..."

Chopper turned away from the miserable people, hiding his face, tears threatening to fall, he walked like there wasn't anything wrong, towards his nakamas. Nami too was turning away from the scene with sad eyes, and Usopp hugged Chopper as he burst out in muted sobs and cries. Luffy's face was blank, as was the rest of the crew, blank, with hard eyes. He turned his eyes away from Ed's face when Ed's right-flesh-fingers uncurled (When did he clench them?) and the object from there rolled towards him. He picked it up. It was a log watch. It was pattered with small amount of blood, but it was still capable of showing directions; and it wasn't pointing at the ground. It was probably pointing at the next island they'd be going to.

* * *

AN: Eh. Not much line dividers cause they're all in same place... and not much view change...

Thank you for the review, Alch3mist!! (told you I would) Last chapter on the road!!

mrawgirl09


	20. Chapter 20

Luffy sighed, and flopped back on the head of the Thousand Sunny, his legs flapped around what looked like the mane. Everybody was back to their normal routines… with different reasons. Sanji was back in the kitchen, washing the dishes feverously to unleash his frustration. That dinner would be a little bit spicier than usual. Zoro was training in the gym, drowning himself in adrenalin. Usopp and Franky were in their workshops, each burying themselves in work. Chopper was fishing, watching the blue sea stretched far beyond the horizon. Nami and Robin were back in their usual spots of their relaxation, each reading books.

Luffy stopped himself from sighing again. His crew was doing its best trying to get back to a normalcy and he wouldn't drag it back reminiscing about the man they'd only met really for about a week or two.

When they had come out of the cave leading to the hidden city, they lived another week at a mansion -Mustang's, Luffy remembered- just letting the water get back to the flow. They had found out that Mustang was the Fuhrer of Amestris, and Edward's sponsor and boss; Alphonse was Edward's brother, an exact inverse-copy; Winry his automail's mechanic-which she allowed Franky and Usopp watch her clean the blood out of the crevices; Alfonse Heidereich was Aphonse's doppelganger from another dimension that Edward travelled to once; Russell Tringham and his brother, Fletcher, were one of Edward's many friends…

They also learnt about the Full Metal Alchemist, The People's Alchemist, and saw the impact Edward had when they saw the news. It reminded Luffy of when the president Icebug was shot. There weren't any riots, but the whole country seemed to dim just slightly.

Edward did wake up, after 5 days of comatose, only to show that he's become a vegetable. His eyes would have no focus, no fire in them whatsoever, and he would just sit and stare, the stark opposite of the fierce nature they had saved from the sea weeks before. The state that Edward was in both broke and hardened the pirates' heart, who were not used to this type of pain. Well, they did; they did have the pain when someone close to them was lost… but not together. They didn't think they'd experience this sort of happenings again when they got together as a crew. After the crew was put together, they didn't go directly through any miseries like people dieing, being tortured, kil-

Luffy shook his head, trying to empty his head of the depressing thoughts. He needed to concentrate on his goal. He'd make a difference to the world he just saw.

Becoming once again determined, he changed his pensive face with a mask of a gigantic smile, and flipped back to Nami;

"Hey guys! Are we there yet?"

* * *

AN: Yeah. Done. FINALLY! A bit sad... or not. eh. Proably because I wrote it... hmmm... I wonder... what would happen if a character just ... stops? + u + ufufufufufufu... Oh, and Thanks for the review Alch3mist, and Thank you again beforehand, for the review that I somehow know that you'll be writing!!

P.S. IT'S DONE!!

mrawgirl09


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